Another Crisis
by ExorcistGirl11
Summary: Felicis, the younger sister of Aerith was believed to have died in the church when it was bombed, but two years later a SOLDIER comes out with the same name. As she tries to keep the Gainsborough in her dead, and the girl in her suppressed she meets Zack.
1. Chapter 1: prologue

_**Prologue**_

_**2 years earlier:**_

"I'm going out for a little while!" Aerith cried to the teens and children playing in the church. "Grandet! I'm leaving you in charge okay!" The oldest among them of 18 years old nodded. "Why does she always put Grandet in charge!" Dephnia whined. "Felicis! You should tell your sister that I'm definitely more suited to be in charge than Grandet is!"

Felicis Gainsborough laughed. "Well Grandet is the oldest after all. Say, how about we play a game!" She smiled.

Zaneit stared at Felicis with a smile on his face, "oh? And what game would that be?"

"I know what game you want to play with Felicis, but you two love birds don't get to do anything like that in front of little Atricus here," Merule snapped patting the small 10 year old gray haired girl on the head.

"Let's play SOLDIER then!" Felicis cried.

"You really want to be in SOLDIER that badly Felicis?" Aurale asked.

"Of course!" Felicis cried.

"I don't know. People in SOLDIER get hurt don't they?" Zaneit thought worriedly.

"Let's just play!" Felicis said.

And so that day began. There were 18 kids in the church that day. All best of friends. They were two different groups though, nine each group. Separated in to the Emotions and the Elements, warriors. They were warriors of different groups. Among the Elements were Felicis Gainsborough, Aurale Fachette, the twin brothers Larch and Let Ravine, the sisters Merule and Serae Engel, the brothers Varst and Rael Thefter, and Xantus Caepher who's had a little sister in the Emotions. Among the emotions there was, Xantus's younger sister who was also the youngest out of them all Atricus, then there was the sister Thearin and Dephnia Sephlit, Argon Thantus, Atsic Maticus, Grandet Fletcher, Melstone Katren, Frausic Van-Galheim, and last but not least Zaneit Roht.

These teens and children had never faced any amount of hardship in their life, even their living in the slums and being orphans never had one shed a tear. The reason of this was one person, Felicis Gainsborough. They would follow her to the ends of the earth and the depths of hell if she asked it. Her kind heart fell upon all of them. Felicis and her sister Aerith lived in the church at the end of the slums. No matter the age the church had not one crack. It was a perfect and suitable place to live.

At the same time every day Felicis would bid farewell to her friends and welcome her sister home. It was the same every day.

"Bye Felicis!" The kids cried. Zaneit stood by her and leaned in to kiss the girl he loved. "C'mon Zaneit!" Dephnia slapped Zaneit on the back shocking him so much that he had almost slipped and fallen to the floor. The both of them red faced laughed and he ran to the rest of the group. Smiling as bright as ever Felicis waved to them and returning the smile they waved back. But above her waving that's when they saw the planes in the sky. The huge warships overhead. It was armed with bombs and missiles of all kinds. They never did expect it to drop those horrid missiles on the church until it did. Zaneit cried out and ran back towards the church in an attempt to maybe save Felicis, but it was too late. Felicis seeing their horrified faces took one look behind her and she was enveloped in fire and light. The sky warrior of the Elements was gone.

The old church's top was crushed to the ground and the fire still burned evilly over the top. Horrified, the kids ran over to the screaming and cursing stumbling over their own feet. Zaneit rushed to the very entrance of the collapsed church where Felicis once stood. He clawed at the rubble and tried to move the heavy rocks as best he could. "Help me dammit!" he screamed at his friends, and they did.

After hours and hours of moving the heavy rubble they realized that their efforts were all in vain, for they had moved every single trace of stone from the inside of the church and found nothing but her bracelet. Not a body, not a trace of bone, not even ashes. Felicis Gainsborough had was gone. And they had nothing but a bracelet to prove that she had ever existed in that wretched world.


	2. Chapter 2: SOLDIER 2nd Class

_Chapter 1: Soldier 2nd__ class_

_Felicis Gainsborough curled up on her bed in the Shinra building. The metal of her helmet freezing her face. How much she would love to remove the heavy helmet, but she couldn't. If she did everyone would find out that she was actually a female and she could be kicked out of SOLDIER. Maybe, if things turned out to be more serious than she would hope for, she could be executed. All of a sudden the door to her room opened and in walked her roommate. "What's up Kunsel," she said in her deep voice that had become so easy to fake. When she'd first taken on the job faking it had been hard, now it was natural. _

"_Nothing much, how about you Felicis?" _

"_Same. I'm just tired. Exhausted. Stuff of the like."_

"_Aah, understood. Did you hear? Zack got promoted to First Class."_

"_Zack?" Felicis questioned. She'd never heard of a Zack before. You would think that she knew everyone in SOLDIER, especially those that were good enough to be promoted to First class._

"_You know? Really blue eyes. Black spiky haired Zack?"_

_Felicis recalled seeing someone that fit that description in SOLDIER. She itched with jealousy. He got promoted? She was still stuck in Second Class. When would she be promoted? She had amazing combat skills, a sword better than everyone else's, loved by the director, so why? "Whatever," she said bitterly. "I'm tired."_

"_Why don't you ever take off your helmet? Isn't it uncomfortable sleeping with your helmet on?"_

"_I do it all the time. I'm used to it."_

"_Come to think of it, I've never really seen you take it off before. Why is that?" Just then Felicis's cellphone rang. Saved by the bell as some people would call it. She flipped it open. A message from director Lazard. The man that favored her out of all other SOLDIER members yet failed to promote her sad ranking. At least it was a sad ranking to Felicis. She wanted to be at the top. The first female to get to the top of SOLDIER. Too bad she had to pretend to be male though. _

"_Gotta' go Kunsel. See you later." Felicis said hopping off the bed and out the door. She took the elevator to the director's office. When she got there she was surprised to see him there. Just as Kunsel had said. Spiky black hair, deep blue eyes, and he wore the SOLDIER First Class uniform. She frowned under her helmet. _

"_Ah, Felicis. Thank you for coming. I'm assigning you on a mission with Zack here."_

"_Yeah, and where?" _

"_To the outskirts of Midgar. Some Wutai troops have set up camp there and are planning an attack in a minimum of two days. We need you there immediately."_

_Wutai, was it always Wutai these days, Felicis thought. Why were they even in war with them anyways. It was always they're planning on attacking us, or we're planning on attack them. We'll send spies, they sent spies. Wutai, Wutai, Wutai._

"_Will you accept this mission?" Lazard asked me._

"_Of course," she told him, but did she really have a choice anyways? The only reason she didn't really want to go was because she was a little bitter towards Zack for getting promoted. Feeling that way made her feel stupid because she didn't even know the guy and she was already judging him. _

"_Then off you go," Lazard said. And off we went. _

_Name: Felicis Gainsborough _

_Age:14 years_

_Birth date: January 2__nd_

_Occupation: SOLDIER 2__nd__ class_

_Unusual features: Mako infused blue eyes; Tattoo on left arm of braided band; Usually wearing SOLDIER helmet_

_Family: Aerith Gainsborough (older sister)_

_Weapon: Sword_


	3. Chapter 3: Underneath it all

Chapter 2: Underneath it all

I trudged through the outskirts of Midgar with that blue eyed annoying boy named Zack, but I couldn't really say anything about his eyes since mines were just about the same. Okay so maybe I was still a little bitter, but you know what? I had the right. Heat waves from the sun were hitting, and may I say heating up my mask. My face was burning and I was in no mood at all to be ordered around by any higher up. Especially a rookie higher up. "See anyone out there? Felicis… I think that's your name right?"

"Yeah, and I don't see anyone." I said with a frown on my face, it was covered by that annoying mask though. If only SOLDIER allowed girls I wouldn't be in this mess right now.

"Nice sword you got there. You know it's pretty rare for a 2nd class to have their own sword. See, mines is still a SOLDIER sword." He raised up that skinny thing. All I could think was that if I wielded anything so light it would kill me. My sword was taller than I was with a merciless jagged left, and I thin and straight right. Clean kill, messy kill was basically how I summed it up.

"It's name is Fascinare, and I've never used a SOLDIER sword before. I joined SOLDIER with this sword in hand already," I told him. This sword had been passed along to me. The Gainsborough family heirloom, nobody really used it though or wanted to use it. Too bad for them I wanted to use it.

"Ah, I see. Hey doesn't it get hot in that helmet?" He reached over to take it off. "Here, I'll take it off for you."

I panicked and slapped his arm away. A minute after I'd realized what I'd done I apologized. "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

Zack look shocked for a moment then shrugged, "okay."

He was so pushy. I tried to steer clear away from him, not again would he get even close to the helmet on my head.

After about another hour of wandering though the dry outskirts I was just about ready to give up. "Man, maybe Lazard got it wrong, I haven't seen any Wutai troops at all out here."

"Well that makes two of us," I groaned. Truthfully this Zack character was getting on my nerves. I swear he never stopped talking. Still so cheery out here in the hot sun, was he really SOLDIER First Class? During my sulking about being partnered up with a total ditz I heard an ear piercing screech whiz by my ear. Then following that was an explosion that blew Zack and I yards away. Just before my helmet was about to fly off I caught it. I didn't really feel like having my cover blown today, but guess what? I finally had something to do out in this wasteland.

"Well there they are, took them long enough," around 50 troops were marching towards us. Bombs, guns, and knives. It was Wutai in all of it's glory, or at least however much glory 50 troops could get. "Ready?" Zack asked.

I lifted Fascinare off of my back and pointed it at the upcoming troops, "never been more ready." And it was true because in about half a minute I was in the center of all of the troops. They all aimed their guns right at me, I was completely surrounded, but when I heard the call to fire in did a back handspring straight in to the air missing all of the bullets and causing the troops to take out their own. I returned to the ground with a big sweep of my sword clearing out about another five troops with the clean edge of my sword. Somewhere close to me I heard more troops being cut down, probably Zack. In the split second I was deciding on whether to join him or not a felt a bullet lodge in my shoulder. That would be a bother to get out. In a rush sweep I pulled the bullet out of my shoulder. I was lucky it hadn't gotten any deeper thanks to my vest.

From behind one came at me with a spear and out of pure instinct I drove the "unclean" edge of my blade straight in to his lower abdomen leaving him severely wounded and bleeding to death. "Oops," I muttered under my breath while clearing out more troops. In almost no time at all Zack and I had met up again with no more troops left to kill. "I'm done," I said flinging my sword back to it's rightful place on my back.

"Me too," Zack grinned. Just then we both heard the croak of a Wutai soldier and we both turned around quickly in shock. There he was, my "unclean" cut victim, still not bled to death but lighting a fuse on his chest. It took a split second to realize what he was doing, but it was also a split second too late.

"Die," the soldier croaked with his last breath and the next thing I saw was fire. Fire like the day the old church in the slums was set ablaze. Fire, like the fire and bombs that took away my friends. Took away everything precious to me. Took away Zaneit the boy I loved, and little Atricus who didn't even get to achieve any of her goals at 10 years old. Heck, maybe debris took out my big sister too who had never even found love. To this day there was still a question that no one could answer for me though. How, when I should have been the first one to die being the one that was actually in the church did I end up in front of the Shinra building in sector 8? How was I alive anyways?

Then I felt my body exit the flames and I toppled to the dry sand. I wasn't burned too bad. "Felicis!" I heard Zack cry as he ran over to me, but then he stopped dead in his tracks. "Felicis?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. What about you?"

"No, uh Felicis."

"Yeah, spit it out! I was just burned, I'm in no mood to play games!"

"Felicis… you're a girl?"

My breath caught in my throat. I looked back to see my mask blown at the least 50 yards behind me. My mask was off…

"How did you…? How did you pull off being a guy all this time?"

Oh my God. He knew I was a girl. In one quick swing of my arm my sword was straight at his neck. "You cannot tell anyone, you hear me?" I said in my normal voice, but it was more threatening than it was usually. "If you tell anyone I'll kill you."

Zack raised his arms in the air as if he were pleading for his life. "Okay Okay. I wasn't going to tell anyone anyways, but that's pretty amazing, pretending to be a boy for two years."

"Shut up," I said putting my sword back on my back and walking over to put back on my helmet. Today I really wasn't in the mood to have my cover blown, but apparently no one cared how I felt about this all.

This is Felicis's sword


	4. Chapter 4: Annoying Surprises

Chapter 3: Annoying Surprises

The both of us made it back to SOLDIER and to the briefing room where Lazard sat. "I trust that the mission was a success?" I nodded.

"We found their base and took all the weapons, then we set in on fire." I told him.

"Both unharmed?" He checked.

"Yes," I replied even though the gunshot wound on my shoulder was screaming out in protest. It's not like I could have a doctor in Shinra treat me anyways though, they would surely tell SOLDIER I was a girl right when they realized it. Speaking of people in Shinra ratting me out, I stared at Zack intently though my helmet. He knew the truth.

"Good work men. Off you go then."

I nodded and we both left. I got away from Zack as fast as I could and rushed to my room. Kunsel wasn't there, that was good. I took off my helmet and tied my hair short hair back. Then I slipped on some normal clothes, well girls clothes that I hid underneath the mattress of my bed. When I left the room no one even suspected me.

"Hey!, what brings you here?" I heard Kunsel call out from behind me. He didn't recognize me so it was okay. Anyways he was pretty used to seeing me because I was the girl that would _often visit _Felicis.

"Oh, I was seeing if Felicis was here," I smiled. "He must be out right now because no one answered the door. How have you been?" I smiled.

"Great, there's been a desertion at SOLDIER though."

"Genesis? Felicis told me a little while ago."

"Yeah, well I don't want to hold you up wherever you're going. It was good seeing you again Felcie," Kunsel waved.

"You too!" I smiled, but I didn't wave because my arm felt like it would detach from my shoulder blades if I moved it at all, so I played it the smart way.

I went to the hospital in Sector 8 (this is a make believe hospital) and they took me in right away. "Where'd you get a wound like that?" The doctor asked me with a surprised look on his face.

"I went hiking with some friends and slipped and fell on a sharp rock," I explained to him clearly even though it was a lie. "I'm pretty unlucky."

"Clearly, don't worry. We'll have it fixed up in no time. Nurse, get me stitches and bandages!" The doctor called, the nurse brought them right over and he began.

After words they offered me a sling for me arm but I shook me head. No way was I going to walk in to Shinra with a sling. My arm was a little numb, but I figured it would be somewhat okay to move by the next day.

Since I was already out in the town I figured it would be okay to stay a little longer, it couldn't hurt right? Wrong. Next thing I knew I was running in to that annoying first class idiot again. "Zack," I groaned.

"Felici-" I quickly shoved my hand over his mouth.

"It's Felcie, my name's Felcie! So call me that okay!" I told him trying to act as friendly as I could so the people around me wouldn't realize it was me.

"Felcie…. Okay then Felcie, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I was visiting the hospital and stuff like that." Acting like a girl had become a lot harder for me than before now. "And you?"

"Exploring," he answered. "Would you like to join me?"

"Actually, I'm in a hurry. And I got to go that way," I pointed in the opposite direction. "So, see ya!" I hurried off, I really just wanted to get as far away as I could from him, and if that faraway place was my room back in Shinra then so be it. I was feeling a little tired anyways.

I was wondering what was taking Kunsel so long to get back to the room. I was all back to my normal self, the SOLDIER self, helmet and all. I sighed and rolled around on my bed ready to go to sleep. Then all of a sudden the door burst open. And a voice that was not Kunsel's entered the room in the most annoying way possible. I turned around ready to kill whoever it was that had come in, in such a manner. Only it was Lazard, and of course my ears' worst nightmare.

"Felicis Gainsborough, Kunsel has been given the task of helping a new SOLDIER recruit so he will be sharing the same room as him. So here's your new roommate!" And there he was, grinning like the usual idiot he was. "Zack Fair, you two seemed to get along quite nicely anyways."

Wrong, wrong, so horribly wrong! I did not get along with Zack Fair! What in the hell was Lazard thinking!

"I'm sure you two will get along just fine won't you?"

"Yes sir!" Zack grinned and I wanted to scream. Surprise Felicis!

Please rate and message! In fact I do believe that rating is required for me


	5. Chapter 5: Maybe Not so Bad

Chapter 4: Maybe Not So Bad

"Leave Me Alone IDIOT!" I cried at Zack.

"Helmet off now! It's not good for a girl to hide her face every second of the day! We're in the room so it's fine!" Zack yanked at the helmet on my head and I was doing everything in my power to keep it on. I even rammed my head in to a wall at kept it there so that it wouldn't come off. It was day four of living with my new absent minded idiotic roommate. "Felicis!"

"Never!" Then all of a sudden I felt a hard jerk from the back of my collar, I gagged and flew away from the wall and on to the floor, right on top of the idiot.

"Oh gosh…." Zack groaned. "That really hurt."

"Now if that was my problem maybe I would care," I snapped.

"Hey," he lifted up a helmet off the ground. "But I win."

My face flushed with rage. "Idiot! I hate you do you know that! I hate you!" I cried reaching for it, but he jumped to his feet and held it up in to the air.

"You know, you look pretty young. How old are you anyways?" He lifted the helmet up higher as I jumped to reach it.

"14! Just give me back my helmet!"

"Ah, that's pretty young, and you're a SOLDIER?"

Finally realizing that it was useless to try and get my helmet back I stopped. "Yeah, what of it?"

"Where's your home? Your parents? Family? Friends?"

I winced, dead parents, dead long before I knew them, heard mom was pretty from Aerith, but never really knew them. Aerith, big sister, dead? Probably, I'd never had the guts to go back to the slums, to the church to find out the truth. I was too scared to see if the truth was what I already knew it probably was. It was better to not know and have a sliver of hope than to find out the truth and have that hope evaporate. Friends? Dead for sure, gosh what did they ever do too deserve that? "Leave me alone," I muttered and walked past him throwing myself on to my bed.

"Touchy subject?" Zack asked, his annoying playful look changing to a more considerate one.

"Nah, not really. They're dead is all, it's been two years so I'm fine with it now." I lied. It so did bother me, why was I alive when I was the one in the church? All I saw was red flames and next thing I knew I woke up in front of the Shinra building. Was it some crazy miracle that that happened? Somehow I just happened to teleport to Shinra building? Bullshit. "And how old are you Mr. Fair?"

"Sweet old 16!" He grinned. 16, lucky him. Aerith would be 15 right now, but I still remembered her as a 13 year old. I would never imagine her any older than that.

"And what have you ever lost in your life?" I sighed, no way could a cheerful idiot like this have that sad of a life, but then Zack's face changed.

"I don't know if you'd consider this a loss, but my best friend, Angeal. No one can find him anywhere, they say he deserted SOLDIER and I didn't believe him at first, but then I had a mission to his hometown, Banora. I saw him, he- he killed his mother… he left with Genesis, I just don't know what to believe anymore."

"The first class right?" I asked. "Well if he isn't dead look for him."

Zack looked at me with a surprised look on his face.

"There's no way I would just sit around here and grovel about how my best friend is gone when he's still alive and out there. Just trust him, you trust your friends right?"

"Do you trust me?" Zack grinned.

I felt a blush rise on my cheeks. "Idiot who said that we were friends!"

"I think we're very nice friends already," he laughed. Always smiling. How did he do that? Didn't his cheeks hurt. I was so tempted to ask him.

"I think not," I snapped turning away from him. Who did he remind me of anyways? Zaneit? Zaneit always smiled too, but I never found that annoying. I loved it when he laughed, then again I just loved him in general. Maybe I didn't like Zack because he reminded me of Zaneit. Because he was alive and Zaneit wasn't and they were the same.

"Do you really hate me that much?" Zack asked throwing himself on to the other bed.

"No, I don't hate you. At first I thought you were a dumb alien that wouldn't stop smiling."

Zack laughed, "do you not like my smile?"

I ignored his comment and continued on, "you're still a smiling idiot, but I guess you're pretty human. Not as alien as I expected." I had to crack a smile, because it was the truth.

"So I'm still part alien to you?" He scoffed, "the mind of a female I will never understand."

"But the mind of a male I always will," I said. After all I was pretending to be one and had fooled a lot of people out there. All of the SOLDIERS and Lazard and everyone in the Shinra building, infantryman, a lot of important people.

"Whatever," Zack sighed.

So I had more of less befriended a smiling idiotic alien. But that fact that I had befriended him got me thinking. Maybe Zack Fair the idiotic alien wasn't so idiotic after all. Anyways, I was only bitter to him for being in a higher class than I was.

Please rate! It is much appreciated!


	6. Chapter 6: Long Story Short

Chapter 5: Long Story Short

Would I have even considered befriending the black haired, blue eyed idiot just a month and a half ago? No, not at all. In fact if he tried to befriend me I would've kicked him right out of the room and on to the streets. He could've found his own amazing room mate. But of course that was then and this was now. A month and a half, and I'd finally learned to put up with his playful idiocy. If that wasn't friendship I didn't know what it was anymore. Can I ask if it's possible to possibly be so jealous of your friend that would hate them so much that you could, dig a hole in the ground and bury them? Well jealousy coursed through my veins at this moment right now. "I saw her Felicis, you have to listen to me." Zack pleaded. I ground my teeth together, clenched my fists and shook my head.

"I will _never _go see her." Let's rewind a little bit shall we?

"You're going on a mission? How exciting." I smiled laying on my bed and staring at Zack. "Really sure you're ready? After all you did just kill a Genesis Avatar yesterday."

"Who do you think you're talking to? Of course I'm ready! I'm ready for every mission!"

"Where is it?"

"Mako Reactor 5." He said plainly as if it were no big deal at all.

"Ooh, scary. How about I tag along? What do you think?"

Zack turned at me worriedly. "Of course not! Do you know how dangerous this mission could be? Genesis clones are all over the place right now, I just don't want you to get hurt."

I pouted, why did he always need to treat me like a little girl? It was unfair, I was just as skilled as he was in fighting. He just needed to worry he little butt off. "Fine," I huffed crossing my arms.

"Be back soon okay? Don't miss me too much." Zack jeered.

"Oh, don't you worry about that one little bit. I have plenty to do around here." I smiled back snidely. He just let out a chuckle and went out the door.

Zack had been gone for a few hours now when I heard that Lazard wanted me in his office. Like I always did I went immediately.

"I have a mission for you," Lazard said clasping his hands together on the table.

"Okay, where is it?"

"I want you to do some investigating in the slums. It should be quite the easy mission for someone of your caliber."

I felt like my heart caught in my throat. I hadn't gone back to the slums for two years. I promised myself I'd never go back. I didn't want to go back, didn't want to know the truth of anything. "I- I-" I stammered. Suddenly it felt really hot in my helmet and I wanted to take it off really badly. My heart beat unendingly.

"Is there something wrong Felicis?" Lazard asked.

I stayed silent for a while trying to make sure I would stop choking and stammering over my words. "Uh, of course. Give me a few hours and I'll be out of here as soon as possible." I could hear my own uneasiness in my voice, but gladly Lazard paid it know attention.

"That's good." Was all he said.

I stood in front of the gate to the slums taking deep and uneven breaths. No, the gate hadn't changed at all, but the rest of it had. Since the bombing they had put a roof over the slums, built a reactor over it like it was trash. It was the same reactor Zack was in, maybe after this day was over I could meet him. I quickly balled my shaking hands in to fists. I wasn't just a little girl that lived in the slums, I wasn't the little girl who was in the church when it got bombed anymore. I was an operative for SOLDIER, and that was all I would ever be. Taking my last breath of clean air from the outside I stepped in to the smog of the slums. The gate lead right down to the market. It hadn't changed one bit, the trailers all bunched up in one place selling things that people out of the slums would deem useless. There were still the beggar children in the corners and the kids who would pick pocket others. I walked through and I could feel their eyes on me, I felt like I was holding my breath the whole entire time. To me I was a new person, new person to pick pocket, to trick. To me these were all people that I once knew, my friends, people I considered family. People who thought me dead.

All of a sudden screaming sounded from outside the market. Out of instinct I ran straight towards it. A little girl running from monsters. Adults were running too, but no one cared for the little girl. Every man for himself, whether man or woman, adult or child. The monster took a leap over the little girl about to strike a finishing blow when I immediately intervened, using my body as a shield for the little girl and my sword for my own shield. In one quick swing I dealt a killing blow, the monster disappearing in to the life stream.

The girl tugged on my arm and looked up at me. I recognized her immediately.

"Thank you mister. What's your name? Are you knew around here?"

I knelt down so that we were at eye level. Then I lifted my helmet and let her slowly recognize me.

"Aah!" She cried out in realization. I quickly put the helmet back on.

"Hey Mary, long time no see you little rascal." I put one hand on her head and smiled though she couldn't see it.

"Feli-"

"Shh," I whispered putting my finger over my lips. "This is our secret Mary, promise you won't tell?"

"Promise!" She nodded.

"Don't tell anyone, or I'll be in trouble okay Mary?"

"Got it!"

"Then off you go!" I said pushing her along.

"Oh, and if you're looking for your friend. The one with the spiky black hair that has the same belt as you he's at the park!" She grinned then ran off as told. Zack was here? He'd finished his mission already? I rushed over to the park, but when I got there my heart almost leaped out of my chest. It was her, hair brown like hazelnuts.

"Aerith," I gasped silently. Then without realizing it I was hiding outside the park and spying on them. Something about the two of them made me not want to go in. Zack was talking, Aerith was laughing. A tug of pain struck my chest. That was my sister, in there with my friend.

"Aerith Gainsborough right?" Zack confirmed with a small frown on his face.

"Is there something wrong with my name?" Aerith laughed.

"No, it's just that. Do you have a sister?"

The color drained from Aerith's face which was enough proof for me that she though I was long dead and gone. "I- I did. She was killed when that old church over there was bombed. The one where you fell from the sky. She was inside at the time, and I was at the market. They rebuilt a lot of the church, but they couldn't fix it completely."

Zack looked thoroughly confused. "Aerith, your sister-" I couldn't let him say anything. I didn't know why but I didn't want Aerith to know I was still alive. That was when Zack got the call from his phone. Shinra, thank goodness. He rushed out of there like a rocket before saying his goodbyes. When he saw me he began to open his mouth but I dragged him away faster than he could breath.

"Felicis!" Zack said when we were far out of the slums. "You have a sister!"

"Shut up!"

"You have to believe me I just talked to her! She thinks you're dead why!"

"That's none of your business!"

"It is if we're friends. You have to go see her."

Why did he care so much? It was annoying. I didn't need him to care, he probably only cared anyways for Aerith. I saw his puppy dog eyes for her, disgusting. It was so sick that he felt that way about my big sister. "I will never see her, will never go in to the slums again, and will definitely not discuss something like this with _you_, and if not talking about it means that we're not friends then so be it. We still have to go back to Shinra either way and figure out what the hell is wrong." Then I turned away to walk. He followed slowly behind. Again, is it okay to be so jealous that you want to bury your friend? Then again, maybe we weren't, I just wanted to know why the hell I was jealous.


	7. Chapter 7: Noctis Gemini

Chapter 6: Noctis Gemini

I turned my head away from Zack as we walked up the icy mountain. I didn't understand why we always were put on missions together. Of course Lazard didn't know that I wasn't talking to him but still…

Snow blasted out of every corner of the mountain. It was bad enough that I had to go on this mission, but the worst part was that our helicopter had crashed, so now we were walking up a freezing cold mountain, with a Turk and two infantryman. "Just great." I muttered under my breath resisting the urge to wrap up in to a ball and rock back and forth. Zack didn't seem to mind this weather at all. He walked like he always did, so did one of the infantryman. Soon the two of them were laughing and joking around.

"Hey Tseng! Me and-… wait what's your name?" Zack asked him. I scoffed. That was totally him, to make a buddy and not even ask for their name. Then the infantryman removed his helmet revealing a whole head of spiky blonde hair and electric blue eyes. I almost choked on the freezing air in my helmet.

"I'm Cloud, nice to meet you." He smiled. He looked just about my age. 14, I knew I had to ask him. How could I not? The girl in my was jumping up and down and running circles around my brain, screaming at me, pounding on my head, etc.! I took a deep breath and stormed up to the both of them.

"I'm Felicis Gainsborough! Can I ask how old you are!" I hoped my voice sounded like a boy's, or I might've blown my cover.

Cloud looked at me with a surprised expression on his face, then he smiled sincerely. "I'm 14? Is there a reason?"

I was right. My eyes were never wrong. "Me too! I'm just really happy that there's someone around here my age!" I made my idiotic excuse.

"Wow! And you're in SOLDIER? That's amazing! I'm jealous!" Cloud said in awe.

Wait… was being jealous of me a good thing or a bad thing. It'd been so long since I'd thought of anything like this before, not since Zaneit. Did Zaneit ever tell me that he was jealous of me? Was it bad or good? Praiseworthy or a rude comment!

"Are you okay? Felicis right?" Cloud asked worriedly.

Well if he's asking me if I'm okay then it was okay. It wasn't a rude comment. I could almost die of relief.

"Don't mind him Cloud. He's really serious when he battles, but when he's not fighting he's a pretty weird guy." Zack grinned putting an arm around my neck. Now I knew that, that was not praising me. I would've socked him right there, but Cloud was watching.

"Could you please get off of me?" I asked nicely, taking as much of the bitterness out of my voice as possible. He took his hand off and laughed, but I could tell he was upset. Maybe I was being too harsh on him about the Aerith thing. It wasn't really his fault that he met her.

"Infiltrate the facility?" I said.

"I would be perfect for that job then," Zack grinned. "You guys wait out here and I'll be back in no time." Then he really ran off without a word from us.

"He's always acting out without permission." I sighed.

"You two seem close." Cloud smiled.

"Oh," I tried not to stumble over my words. "Well, he's my roommate. I have to deal with him every single day, so yeah. I guess you could say that."

"Must be nice. Being SOLDIER I mean." He said, it was almost like he was looking in to an abyss of longing.

"Want to be SOLDIER?" I asked.

"Yeah," he laughed. "It's cool, I guess."

"Well, I'll be cheering you on then! When you get in, I want to get to know you better." I smiled.

"Sure," he smiled back.

"Zack disappeared." Tseng said. Staring down off the edge of the trail. "I don't see him anywhere."

I shot up and looked down. "What do you mean he's disappeared?"

"Maybe he found a passageway." Tseng scanned around for an open passageway, then pointed, "found one."

"Then I'm off." I said making my way down the trail.

"But Zack told us to stay here!" Cloud said.

"Man, if only I listened to what he said sometimes," I laughed running down the rest of the way. Next thing I knew Cloud was sliding down after me.

"I'll come too, I'm actually curious about how you SOLDIER fight." Cloud said.

"Stay behind me then," I told him and we ran in to the passageway that Tseng had pointed out. It was even colder inside that out. The flooring was completely made of metal grates so that you could see all the way down, the way you would fall if you fell off the edge. It was a fair warning.

"Which way?" Cloud asked me. I would've told us to split up, but Cloud wasn't exactly armed.

"Let's try the right," I suggested. We walked down the metal grated stairs to another platform, and another, and another. It just didn't stop. I had my sword held tightly in my grasp ready to fight whenever an enemy would pop out.

"Looks like intruders to me. Hollander would not be happy would he Larch?" The voice was so deafeningly familiar. Then lightening shot out and I blocked Cloud so that he wouldn't get hit.

"Felicis!" Cloud cried.

"Cloud, keep on going. Find Zack, I'll deal with this." I said.

"But-"

"Just go. I can handle this much." I assured him, then with an uneasy nod he ran down the next flight of stairs. I turned, and just like I had thought. "Larch, Let… I-is that r-really you?" I stammered.

"Eh? We know this guy Larch? He knows our names. Shocking!" Let said acting appalled. "Well, we can find out right after we're finished."

Larch shrugged. What were these two doing working for Hollander, and Genesis! Let took out his scythe and Larch drew his sword. They each had a matching tattoo on their arms. One of a dragon, Larch's was on his left arm and Let's was on his right arm. No doubt about it, it was definitely them. Larch's sword lit up in a black fire, and Let's scythe crackled up with dark electricity. "Wait guys, listen to me. I don't want to fight!" I protested but it was too late. Larch went head on and would've cut open my chest if I hadn't blocked. I groaned when the attack sent me skidding backwards. His sword was thin, but heavy. I grabbed hold of a firaga materia in my pocket and flung it so that fire surrounded me completely. Then I had it all stick to me so that I was engulfed in flames. "Infernus," I muttered under my breath and my body shot flames everywhere. The both of them were sent flying back on to a railing and Let went over. "Let!" I screamed, but Larch already caught him and was hauling him back up. My flames extinguished and I ran to them. Larch and Let were sitting and leaning on the railing. Larch took one look at me and pointed his sword at me, I didn't recoil, instead I pointed my sword right back at him. His sword lifted up my helmet and sent it skidding across the grates. His eyes widened and I knew he remembered.

"Felicis." He whispered in a small gasp. "Is it really you?"

"In the flesh, Larch." I smiled.

Let shot up, put his hands on my shoulders, and shook me so that my head snapped back and forth. "It really is you! Why the hell didn't you tell me that before I tried to shock you to smithereens!"

"I tried, but you're such a bonehead and didn't listen to me." I sighed. "Anyways, how are you guys alive! I thought for sure that you guys were dead!"

"I should be asking you that, you were the one in the church when it was bombed." Larch said.

"I don't know. All I saw was fire and then I woke up in front of the Shinra building. I thought it was all a dream at first until I heard everyone talking about it. Everyone was saying that you guys were dead!"

"Well I can assure you we're not." Let said. "Can't say anything for those stupid emotion bastards once I get my hands on them though. I'll ring their freaking necks."

"Let." Larch said back threateningly.

"What happened? We're all friends! Why would you talk about them like that!" I lectured Let while thinking of Zaneit.

"After you 'died' they turned on us. Left us in the dust and the rest of us were forced to split up. I only know where my brother and Aurale are, nobody else." Let explained.

Why would the Emotion warriors leave them? We were all best friends. It wasn't right. At that moment Cloud ran up the stairs trying to catch his breath. "Cloud!" I cried quickly grabbing my helmet and shoving it back on before he could see me. "What happened!"

"I was chasing Hollander and lost him! Zack went somewhere! I don't know where!"

"What!" I cried surprising even myself at how worried I was.

"We'll help Felicis. If you're on an opposite side we'll follow you." Larch said. "We're not working for Hollander anymore."

We made it in to a bath house in the outskirts of Modeoheim in a deserted village. Rushing in we made it in to a main bath room. Hollander stood at the top of the stairs and unintentionally let out a cry of surprise. Drawing my sword I ran up and took my swing only to have another sword collide with mine. I looked up to see the defender and my jaw almost dropped. "Felicis!" Cloud cried running up the stairs after me then stopping in his tracks.

This man was Zack's friend. This was the Angeal that Zack always spoke of. A white wing spread across his back. He raised his fist and punched me right in the stomach. I gagged and was sent flying back. Cloud charged towards him in rage and was knocked out by the hilt of Angeal's sword. He slowly made his way over to me and pointed his sword at my neck. "I wonder if Zack would fight me if I killed you." I said. My breath caught in my throat and I reached for my sword. At that moment both Larch and Let came charging forward and throwing Angeal backwards. "Don't touch Felicis!" They both cried at once. Then they heard someone coming up the steps and they fled.

"Felicis!" Zack cried when he saw me. Then he saw Cloud sprawled on an opposite wall. "What happened!" He said kneeling beside me.

"Angeal," I pointed, but he was already gone. "He was right there!" I tried to get up, but fell right back down.

"Angeal did this to you?" Zack gasped.

I nodded feeling bad for him.

"I'm going to find him." He said standing up.

"Wait! I can go too." I told him trying to get to my feet another time, but like the last falling back down.

"Nope, you stay here. I'll come for you later." Then he was also gone.

I felt like I'd been waiting for him too long now. Grabbing hold of the wall I finally got myself to my feet without completely collapsing. I used the wall to get myself all the way to the place where he was. When I was finally there I saw Angeal, his skin a paled grey with a peaceful look on his face. His hair was a pure white and Zack stood over his body. "Zack," I whispered. He turned around and I could see the tears in his eyes. Immediately I released the wall and stumbled over to him throwing my arms around him. He sobbed in to my shoulder and said nothing, but he didn't need to say anything for me to understand. He'd killed Angeal, but by the look on Angeal's face it seemed like everything had happened as he had intended it to. Angeal's large sword was now in Zack's hands, and Zack in mine.

Name: Larch Ravine (Noctis)

Age: 16 years

Birth date: July 18th

Occupation: Night/Dark Element Warrior (Night element parted because of twins)

Unusual features: Dragon Tattoo on Left arm

Family: Let Ravine (twin brother)

Weapon: sword

Name: Let Ravine (Nox)

Age 16 years

Birth date: July 18th

Occupation: Night/Dark Element Warrior (Night element parted because of twins)

Unusual features: Dragon Tattoo on Right arm

Family: Larch Ravine (twin brother)

Weapon: small scythe

New characters!

Please rate!


	8. Chapter 8: Aqua

Chapter 7: Aqua

I snuck out of the Shinra building with Larch and Let to find Aurale. I felt bad for leaving Zack alone because Angeal's had just recently died, but it couldn't be helped. I followed the both of them to sector 7. It was a pretty civilized sector, one that I had never been to before. Just like every other sector there were slums and the rich. It would be nice if the rich would help out the people and families in the slums sometimes, but they wouldn't and the people in the slums knew it. That was just how things were.

"How do you know where Aurale is Let?" I asked curiously.

"Don't ask questions, just follow." Let responded.

"And since when do you make the rules around here? I swear that was always me." I pouted.

Let just shrugged and Larch let out a sigh. Finally we arrived at a small wooden house. Let knocked on the door and called out to Aurale. After a few minutes the door opened and there she stood looking more mature and a lot older than I had remembered her. She had her unique sea green hair spilling off her head and wider eyes. When she saw me she looked unbelieving.

"Hey," I smiled.

"Is this some sort of mean joke Let? If it is it isn't funny and I swear I'll kill you." She stammered staring at me, then Let.

"Nope, it's really her. Surprised?" Let said.

Aurale looked at me, then tears began spilling out of her eyes. She opened up her arms and threw herself around me crying like a child sobbing things in to my shoulder about how she really believed I was dead and that she was so glad I was alive and that it was a miracle. It was then that I realized how much taller than me she'd gotten. She was a year older than me, but two years ago she was pint sized and looked like a little girl. I patted her back and laughed. "I know, I know."

"So now that we've finally found you we can start looking for everyone else right? You know where everyone else is right?" I asked excited.

"When you say everyone else, what do you mean by that?"

"I mean everyone! Zaneit and his gang and the rest of us!"

"Felicis, none of us are associated with Zaneit and those people anymore. Just the rest of the element warriors. Xantus was probably the only one left because he still needed to talk to Atricus, but then he went off somewhere and I haven't heard from him since."

"Why aren't you guys associated with them anymore?" I asked worriedly.

"Well right after you 'died' we got in to an argument. You were the only thing keeping us from fighting each other after all. You and Zaneit held us all together, but all of a sudden you were gone and Zaneit became like a lifeless doll. He ran away and the rest of us just argued until one day it got really bad. Argon got really mad and hurt Serae. I don't think he meant to, but then a huge fight broke loose and we haven't talked to them ever since." Aurale explained.

"Yeah, and you should just forget about them too Felicis. Zaneit probably not with them anyways. Nobody's known where he went since he ran away." Let said. "Now their just a nuisance."

I was shocked by Let's words. We had all been such good friends before. Why would anything pull them apart so easily? "No, I'm still going to look for them."

Let looked annoyed but Aurale interrupted. "Well before doing that let's just find everyone else first huh? What do you think?"

I nodded, that would probably be the best idea. "Who's closest right now?"

"That would be Merule and Serae." Replied Aurale.

We decided to put off looking for the others until the next day. When I got back to my room Zack still laid lifelessly on his bed. I knew he hadn't been there the whole time though. His clothes reeked of flowers, the flowers that Aerith had in the church. He was still meeting up with her and even though I felt a surge of anger I buried it down in my chest. "You okay?" I asked and he nodded lifelessly. I walked over to his bed and held him in my arms. "Hey, feel better soon okay?" I felt Zack bury his face in my shoulder and cry but I couldn't help but feel extremely sick. The smell of flowers still filled my nostrils.

Name: Aurale Fachette (Aqua)

Age: 15 years

Birth date: April 6th

Occupation: Water Element Warrior

Unusual features: long blue hair; tattoo on forehead; natural gold eyes

Family: None known

Weapon: water


	9. Chapter 9: Sorores Glacies Aer

Chapter 8: Sorores Glacies Aer

I opened the window wide and put one foot out. Zack was asleep and I had to meet up with Let, Larch, and Aurale. My head was out of my helmet and I looked like a perfectly normal girl. Sometimes I felt like that was how it should be, most of the time I would be afraid of the very thought that I was a girl. Something that I could get killed for in this building that I worked for. As I got ready to take a leap I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and it was a drowsy Zack. "Where are you going," he said sounding a little more protective than I needed him to be.

"No where important." I said firmly but he wouldn't let go.

"You've been leaving here in secret as Felcie pretty often now. What's going on Felicis?" He held on to my arm tighter like he was scared I would jump out of the window even faster just to get away which was actually my plan. If he wasn't going to let me go I would need a new one.

"It's nothing you need to worry about."

Zack had an upset look on his face. By the looks of it he seemed half asleep at the same time. Then he buried his face in my hair sending a shiver down my spine. "I don't like it when you lie to me. I don't want you to get hurt." I could feel his words on my neck and quickly I remembered his scent two days ago. The smell of Aerith, the smell of flowers. Immediately I pushed him away with a disgusted look on my face.

"Don't touch me," I unintentionally snapped before shaking off his grasp and jumping out. I landed safely on the ground and made a run for it. Not looking to see what kind of face I'd made Zack make this time. I hated it, why'd he have to look so sad all the time? Why did he have to act like he cared all the time. It was annoying. I was the girl and even I didn't make sad faces as often as he did, but then again I didn't smile as often as he did either.

"Merule, Serae I know you're here." Aurale said. "It's me." There was no answer in the house. It was completely run down, so was the city. I didn't even know where we were anymore, we might've been out of Midgar. All of a sudden I heard Aurale scream watch out and I looked to see a boulder sized ice sword coming towards my face. Barely, I blocked myself with Fascinare. The sword was heavy and sent me skidding back about a meter. A flash of white hair appeared and there was Merule, her red eyes like fire. She jumped forward with the sword and aimed again. I felt it scrape my cheek and the warm streak that I felt down my face told me she'd cut.

"What the hell is the madness. This joke, I'll kill you!" Merule screamed and I realized everyone really _had_ changed in these two years. Sweet Merule who wouldn't hurt anyone was more powerful than I could ever imagine. Her eyes that were a bright red that always smiled had developed bags from lack of sleep, they were no longer smiling and the flame in them told me that it had been a while since they had.

"Merule stop!" The other three screamed, but she seemed to tune them out. In her mind there was only me. Me who she thought was an imposter of her old friend that died.

"Merule please it's really me!" I cried.

"Weak," she scoffed. Felicis isn't weak like you are. Felicis would be able to beat me right away. All you've done is run, dodge, and block."

I pointed my sword at her. If this was the way to prove it I had no problem at all. I sprung quickly and ran my sword against her arm. She barely winced before she began her next assault. She pointed her fists at me and I was confused until shards of ice flew from a firing weapon she had tied around her arm. Once again all I could do was dodge. One of the shards came across my head with a sharp blow and more blood spilled down filling my eye. Ignoring it the best I could I sprung forward and hit her hand with the back of my sword causing her to drop hers. Once again she took aim to fire but I sliced the strings that connected it to her arm. Then I thrust the sword at her neck stopping right when it touched her. "Does this prove it to you?" I asked panting.

Merule looked shocked, then her eyes filled with tears and she hugged me tightly crying and screaming at the same time. Her wails brought Serae down the stairs and also in to my arms. "Come on guys, I'm going to bleed all over you two." I laughed feeling a little lightheaded and dizzy, probably from blood loss. "You guys' hair is white. It would be really hard to wash out so please don't let me bleed on you." They didn't seem to care though.

"How is this possible? No, I saw you die but you're still here." Merule sobbed.

"I don't know, some miracle made it happen like this. God didn't want to take me away yet maybe." I chuckled.

"I love God for keeping you with us then." Serae said holding on to me tighter.

"You grew, both of you. And Merule you're two years older than me, come on don't cry. Serae, you're older now so don't be a crybaby either." They both nodded finally letting go.

"Do you guys know where the Thefter brothers are?" I asked using up a lot of my strength just to sit up straight.

"I do," Merule said. "Why? Is there something you need form Varst?" By the way she said his name I knew that they had gotten closer over the course of two years. But how close was closer?

"I just want for us to all be together again." I said not telling her by all of us I meant Zaneit and his gang too.

Merule nodded, face lighting up. And her eyes were smiling again. Thank God that they were smiling again. Then my body finally gave in to the blood loss and I collapsed on the ground.

_In my dream there was a boy in front of me. It was Zaneit. His precious blue eyes gleaming at me like stars in a night sky. And he was calling for me, over and over he was calling for me. I wanted to reach him, I wanted to be with Zaneit again so badly. I didn't want anything to separate us. I wanted us to be unbreakable, wanted the forever that we had promised each other. I wanted to be with him forever, but nobody even knew where he was. No, I knew where. I knew where he would always be waiting for me, but I couldn't remember where. I had to get there, to spend forever with Zaneit. Nobody would hold me back, where we could live in perfect harmony. Me and Zaneit Roht, for the rest of eternity holding each other's hands tightly. The Zaneit in my dreams smiled at me and waved for me to come over. "Please come Felicis, I'm waiting for you here. Come over here, there's so many things that I want to show you, things I want to tell you that we missed over the course of two years. I felt my heart flutter and before I knew it I broke in to a run only to be stopped by strong arms that held me back. _

"_Where are you going, you've been leaving a lot lately. You shouldn't leave my side, I don't want you to get hurt." _

"_Let me go!" I cried. Who dared to try and keep me from my forever with Zaneit? I turned around in a swift movement only to see the person was Zack. _

"_Please, I want you here with me. I don't want you to be with him. He'll hurt you, I don't want you to be hurt. More than anything you matter the most. So please choose me. Me or Zaneit, who do you choose Felicis. If in the end you choose Zaneit I'll understand, but please choose the one that will make you the most happy."_

_I was shocked at Zack's words. Was that a confession? Who to choose? "I choose-"_

Name: Merule Engel (Glacies)

Age: 16 years

Birth date: December 5th

Occupation: Ice element warrior

Unusual features: white hair; red eyes

Family: Serae Engel (little sister)

Weapon: swords made of ice; ice

Name: Serae Engel (Aer)

Age: 14 years

Birth date: November 11th

Occupation: Air element warrior

Unusual features: white hair; red eyes

Family: Merule Engel (big sister)

Weapon: Air


	10. Chapter 10: Ignis et Terra

Chapter 9: Ignis et Terra

"You awake Felicis? Felicis?" I heard Merule say.

My eyes slowly began to open and white light streamed in. Where was I? Midgar was never this bright. I felt my head and felt a bandage that looped around my forehead. Oh yeah, Merule had injured my and I had passed out. "How long has it been?" I groaned.

"Two days," Merule answered. When my vision cleared I saw that Aurale, Let, Larch, and Serae were there too. I had found a handful of my friends. They weren't dead, they were never dead. I felt a tear slip down my eye.

"Hey, Felicis! You really okay?" Let asked worriedly.

"Yeah," I smiled covering my eyes with my arm. "I've really never been better."

Before I knew it Merule began to lead us to find Varst and Rael. I was glad that majority of the element warriors were siblings. It was so much easier to find them since they traveled together. After we found the Thefter brothers Xantus would be the only one left to find. Too bad he was the one we were going to have trouble finding. Nobody had heard from him, he just disappeared one day and no one heard from him again. On the other hand everyone else was in contact in a safe set up. When Let or Larch needed to talk to Merule and Serae Aurale would do it for them. And when Aurale wanted to get in contact with the Thefter brothers she would contact with Merule and Serae. Ravine twins, to Aurale, to Engel sisters, to Thefter brothers. Nobody would be able to find any of them that way since only one person knew where they were. "Is everyone besides Aurale living out of Midgar?" I asked Merule.

"Midgar doesn't suit us very well, Aurale is the only one still there." Merule answered. "Let and Larch… hey Varst and Let know where you guys live right?"

"They live in Modeoheim," I said.

"Man, I should have picked Modeoheim, it's better than where I was living," Merule answered.

"Where were you living anyway Merule?" I asked curiously.

"Huh? Oh me? Banora of course." She smiled. "Didn't you see all of the apples?"

"Oh," I replied feeling dumb. "And where are we going now?" I asked.

"Nibelheim, those idiots chose some tiny town with a backwater name. Apparently nothing ever happens there so that's where they wanted to go."

"Man, two years. Those two must've grown up huh? Varst is 18 and Rael is 15, they're so much older now!"

"Yeah, well they're living overall normal lives. Varst is a medicine maker and Rael just does Rael stuff." Merule smiled when she talked about Varst. Maybe she still liked him from when we were younger. "But it's so ironic that Varst, who is in love with making poisons that could be fatal to a person is saving people's lives making medicines that could heal a person." She laughed. I could tell that she still really liked him. Then the dream I had popped into my mind. The dream where Zack confessed to me, told me to choose between Zaneit and him. Come to think of it I never heard my own answer. I shook it off, it was only a dream anyways.

We finally reached Nibelheim and just like Merule had said it was a small town in the middle of no where, right next to a mountain and a reactor. Everything was calm and everyone seemed friendly. She led us in to a small building a chime on the door rung.

"Welcome! What can I do for-!" A messy blonde haired boy popped up from behind a counter. I knew it was him from the scar across his nose. He stopped talking and his mouth hung wide.

"Merule? Wait? Is that-?" Varst began then Merule interrupted.

"Okay Varst, this might seem crazy but just don't freak out. I already did some collateral damage to her and it wouldn't be healthy for you to go and attack her too."

Varst scoffed. "I'm not you, I wasn't going to try and kill her anyways." Then he walked forward and picked me up like I was a feather. Varst did that a lot to me when I was younger, usually just to show off his strength that no one else had. "You're alive Felicis, you haven't changed one bit."

"You're not surprised?" I asked.

"Nah, just about everyone in Nibelheim has heard of the 2nd Class SOLDIER named Felicis, no last name. I knew it was you from the moment I heard of you. Pretending to be a boy all these years, but you're still so light. Hopefully no one is going to pick you up like I do or they'll realize it immediately, but then again you're so flat, they won't realize anyways right?" He laughed.

I punched him right in the nose for that one.

"That's what you get," everyone said, but Varst.

"Well, why don't you look around okay?" Varst groaned.

I nodded.

I left the shop alone and wandered around. There really wasn't anything to do here was there? I wondered where Rael was. Just when the thought rose in my mind a blonde haired boy left a house, "I'll get it right away he smiled." A lady stood at the door with a smile on her face. His hair was spiky blonde like…

"Cloud!" I cried in disbelief, but the boy didn't turn. The lady at the door's head snapped right to me though. I chased after the boy that was running over to a nearby door. I caught him and he turned at me. Then I realized who it really was. "Rael," I gasped. Rael looked so much like Cloud except for his eyes which were a dark grey instead of cerulean blue.

"Felicis," he gasped back. Then his face lit up in to a smile and he hugged me tightly. "It's really you!" He cried. "Boy, you're taller!"

"That's what I should be saying to you Rael! Your hair is all spiky now and you're really tall! I mistook you for someone else!" I cried back. All of a sudden the woman at the door ran over to me and caught my hand.

"When you said Cloud, who did you mean?" She asked frantically.

"Cloud Strife," I answered. "He's my friend from back where I live."

The lady's face broke out in to a smile.

"Isn't that your son Mrs. Strife?" Rael asked her and my jaw dropped.

"Are you Cloud's mother!" I said in disbelief.

The woman nodded, you should come over! I have a lot I want to ask you about Cloud!"

"Yeah, Felicis. I'll grab Mrs. Strife's mail and I'll be right over too." Rael smiled.

"You seem close to Rael," I smiled. Once we got in to her cozy house.

"He's my errand boy, this town likes him a lot. He just up and appeared along with his brother two years ago and they've supported this town ever since." Mrs. Strife said.

"That's just the kind of people they are." I smiled.

"You also seem very close to the boy."

"Childhood friends. This is the first time in two years that I've seen him, everything's been pretty complicated."

"SOLDIER duties?"

I looked at her surprised. "How did you know that?"

"Rael talks about you often, he told me that the SOLDIER everyone's heard about was probably you. Brave women are good, standing up in a war of men."

"Well I just want to be SOLDIER." I laughed both happy and embarrassed about being praised.

"You are just the kind of girl that I want Cloud to marry!" She laughed.

I turned bright red. "C-Cloud still thinks I'm a boy!" I stammered. "That would never happen!"

"Oh really? We should fix that shouldn't we? How is Cloud doing with his love life anyways?" Mrs. Strife chuckled.

"Horrible," I laughed back. "He's never around any girls at all." "Except for you my dear."

"I don't count, he thinks I'm a boy."

"You mistook Rael for Cloud didn't you?" Mrs. Strife asked.

"Yeah."

"I did exactly the same thing when I first saw him. He really did look like Cloud. He's been like a son to me ever since he came to this village though. How is Cloud doing in chasing his dream of being a SOLDIER?"

"He hasn't reached it yet. He's still an infantryman, but I'm sure he'll make it soon. I'll make sure of it," I grinned.

"Yes, that would be great. Please take care of my son, Felicis."

"Will do," I smiled. "I'm afraid I might need to borrow the Thefter brothers from this town though. It's important," I said.

"Go right on ahead. You probably need them more than this town does."

"Thank you Mrs. Strife. I promise that I'll tell Cloud you said hello," I smiled.

"Thank you dear," Mrs. Strife smiled back.

All of a sudden my phone rang and I checked my messages.

_From: Director Lazard_

_To: All SOLDIER members_

_Felicis_

_Status: missing_

_All troops on look out duty. Find him immediately._

That couldn't have been good.

Name: Varst Thefter (Incendia)

Age: 18 years

Birth date: August 13th

Occupation: Fire element warrior

Unusual features: scar across nose; spiky blonde hair

Family: Rael Thefter (little brother)

Weapon: Fire; poisonous gas

Name: Rael Thefter (Terra)

Age: 15 years

Birth date: March 23rd

Occupation: Earth element warrior

Unusual features: Fire tattoo on left arm; spiky blonde hair

Family: Varst Thefter

Weapon: sword


	11. Chapter 11: On the Lookout

Chapter 10: On the Lookout

"I have to go," I said eyes wide.

Mrs. Strife looked at me confused. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, I really enjoyed being here. I'm in a hurry though, if I don't get back to Shinra as soon as possible I-" might be killed. I thought. I had to get back immediately. I ran out of Mrs. Strife's home without an explanation and ran in to Rael. He caught me completely and looked at me surprised.

"Felicis? Hey what's wrong?" Rael asked worriedly.

I showed him the message from Director Lazard and he understood.

"I'm coming with you Felicis," He said seriously.

"No, Rael you and Varst love this town. You should stay here, everyone here needs you." I told him but he shook his head.

"You need us more, and we need you. Truthfully, we started working here after we found out about you being in SOLDIER because we wanted to earn enough money to take the nearest train back to Midgar to see you. We have more than enough money to get us all on a train so you can get back faster than you know it!"

Rael really had grown up since I'd last seen him. "Go back to Mrs. Strife's house and tell her goodbye, also tell her I'm sorry that I can't explain. I'll try and come back someday to visit. I'll go back to Varst and get everyone ready to leave."

He broke out in to his old childish smile and nodded. Then I ran back to Varst's pharmacy. I burst through the door.

"We have to leave. Director Lazard has every single SOLDIER out there looking for me. I have to get back to Midgar as soon as possible. Rael told me about the train," I looked at Varst. "I know it's a lot to ask, but do you think you could buy us tickets to get back?"

"Anything for Felicis," Varst laughed. "Rael told you that we're coming with you right?"

I laughed and nodded, "but who will run your pharmacy?"

"Don't worry, I have someone. Afterall I knew I was going to leave here someday." Varst replied.

We gathered all of our belongings together and once Rael returned we set off and out of Nibelheim. I took one last look at the small town with the huge reactor sitting next to it. Cloud grew up here, it was a beautiful town. Maybe I could tell him about my visit, but then again I didn't want any of Shinra knowing about my trip here. In the end I didn't get the chance to find Xantus though. Where could he have gone, and why would he disappear without a word to anyone?

We walked for a couple of hours, Fascinare was heavy on my back and everyone had offered at least once to carry it for me, but I refused. The train was in another town, which was far away considering Nibelheim was an isolated town. A few times we had to watch out for infantryman, or SOLDIERS that were in the area sometimes. Varst would at times drape a huge cloth over me to hide my sword. It would be a huge give away if they saw it. We were just lucky that is wasn't scorching outside. We wandered for a whole night before reaching the next town. There it was, the railroad that led in to Midgar. Varst bought the tickets and we all boarded. I kept my sword hidden as I sat down on the seat next to Aurale and across from Rael. The last person to board the train wore a blue SOLDIER uniform. I cursed to myself and hid Fascinare even further. I didn't recognize the guy so I hoped he wouldn't recognize me either. I shrunk down in to the cloth on instinct as he passed by my seat, then sighed in relief when he didn't even look at me.

Director Lazard would definitely be angry with me disappearing for a long while, but I didn't think he would ask too many questions. Afterall he trusted me too much. The only person I would really have trouble with was Zack. I knew he'd be the one to bombard me with questions that I didn't want to answer. And as always I wouldn't answer them, and Zack would get angry again. Just like he always did, but then he would forgive me. Just like he always did.


	12. Chapter 12: Junon

Chapter 11: Junon

Junon, Zack and I had been sent to this town for a mission. Cloud accompanied us, but wasn't looking to good. He stood by the wall covering his mouth with a sick look on his face. "Motion sickness?" I laughed, after all we _had_ gotten here by helicopter.

"No, I'm fine," Cloud lied.

"Liar, you definitely have motion sickness," I sighed.

"Felicis, we have to go," Zack said.

I nodded, then looked at Cloud. "If I were you I wouldn't move, just wait for it to pass." Then I left with Zack. Now that I'd found out Cloud's mother had been looking after Rael I felt obligated to help her look after Cloud. "Poor guy," I sighed.

Zack just laughed. "That's Cloud for 'ya I guess." Everything had gone back to normal since I snuck away from Shinra for a couple of days. Soon the rumors died off and so did Zack's questions. Just before coming to Junon Zack had been on his "vacation", too bad for him it was interrupted by this mission.

"Still sulking?" I joked.

"Of course not, what are you talking about," he scoffed. He was obviously still sulking. We didn't talk about Aerith much anymore either. She just never came up and I made sure that she didn't, he would go see her whenever he wanted and he knew not to tell me. As for my friends, they had all settled down in the slums. They didn't go outside much and if they ran into Aerith they wouldn't mention me at all. When I went on missions they would all press me to let them go too, especially on the Junon mission, but I had to refuse. "Up ahead," Zack nudged me and I looked forward.

"More Genesis copies?" I sighed. "What a pain."

"G Troopers to be exact," Zack replied.

I drew Fascinare and charged forward taking down one of the troopers and Zack taking down the others. "We've taken down so many of these that I've memorized how to kill them," I said.

"Me too."

We took down more Genesis look-alikes when Hollander appeared. "That asshole." I groaned chasing after him, Zack following at my side. "All he's ever going to do is run isn't he!" I cried.

"He _is_ a coward after all," Zack sighed. We chased him in to a clearing and Hollander flashed us his cowardly grin, then hit a button on a control pad and tank rose from the ground. "Well that doesn't look good does it," he scoffed.

"Don't joke about this Zack," I clenched my teeth together as I watched Hollander escape. "Gosh, I hate that guy so much."

"Join the club," Zack replied. The tank summoned some tiny annoying objects that flew across the air. "Felicis, I'll take on the tank, you get the propeller things, okay?"

"Gotcha," I told him while starting to hack away at the objects. One of the propellers managed to swing off my helmet and throw it aside following a cut to my cheek. I was about to dive for my helmet when Zack said.

"It'll be fine Felicis! No one else is here!"

I nodded and continued, then I saw the gun on the tank turn around to shoot Zack who was completely oblivious to what was going to happen. "Fire!" I screamed, aiming at the tank and the gun of the tank was engulfed in flames. "Watch yourself!" I said to Zack. He nodded.

After finally killing the tank and the annoying flying objects I put my helmet back on just before Tseng walked in, followed by two infantryman. "We've been able to contain the enemies in this area, if we lock this door we can hold the enemy off. We'll move the evacuated residents here, for now. Looks like things are going smoothly on your side."

"Yeah, but we let Hollander escape," Zack replied.

"We should get going Zack," I said and he nodded. Finally when we caught up with Hollander he opened the door to the airbase. At that very moment enemies swarmed out. "I'll take care of them, okay Zack? You go catch Hollander."

"Okay," Zack said taking off my helmet and flicking my forehead. "Be careful, okay?"

I angrily shoved my helmet back on. "Just go!" I said feeling my face get hot. He did as he was told and left. "He has some nerve." I grumbled to myself, still red faced. I took out my anger and confusion out on the enemies. Why did Zack always have to bother me so much? It ticked me off, first he bothered me when he found out my secret, then he started crushing on my sister, then he got curious about why I disappeared for so long, he always worried too much about me, and finally he was never going to stop teasing me. "Idiot!" I screamed slicing one of the machines clean in half. He was cocky, joking, and teasing and I wish he'd just leave me alone. I finished off the last enemy and sighed. Now I had to go catch up with the idiot.

When I found Zack he was talking with Sephiroth. I got close enough and hid so that I could hear their conversation.

"Genesis copies have been spotted all over the world. Did he really die?" Sephiroth asked.

"Uhh…" Zack was speechless. I already knew that even he was uncertain of Genesis' death, wasn't everyone though? The only reason there would be so many copies would be because he was alive, right?

"They've even shown up in Midgar," Sephiroth took a glance at Zack. "In the slums too."

Zack's face changed rapidly in to a face of worry. I knew why, it was because of Aerith. Always my big sister.

"Your permission to leave is granted," Sephiroth said.

"Thank you," Zack replied and ran off. I slunk down in to the corner that I was hiding in. Everyone always liked Aerith more than they liked me, she was more girly and pretty. She always knew what to say and always smiled. It didn't surprise me that Zack liked her too. A girl sitting by a bed of flowers is always pretty to see isn't it?

"You can come out now," Sephiroth said, standing above me.

I jumped to my feet in shock. "S-sorry! I didn't mean to, I just-"

He reached for my helmet and removed it. A part of me died inside. I might as well be dead anyways. "I see." Sephiroth said.

"I- I can explain." I mumbled.

"I already knew long ago," Sephiroth sighed. "Would you like to leave as well Felicis Gainsborough? You just might lose to your sister if you don't chase after him."

My face turned a bright red. "Wh- what are you talking about! I don't- Zack isn't- he means nothing to me!" I stammered. I felt like an idiot for getting so nervous, it didn't prove my point at all.

"It doesn't seem that way to me," Sephiroth told me.

"Well it is!" I said firmly. I snatched my helmet from his grasp and put it back on, then I started to walk away. It wasn't until three years later when I realized the truth.


	13. Chapter 13: Regretting a Goodbye

Chapter 12: Regretting a Goodbye

"Hey, Felicis. don't you think your hair is getting a little long?" Zack asked me.

"I guess so, I haven't cut it in a long time after all. It'll be hard to get it all back in to my helmet if I don't cut it, huh?" I said.

"Smart girl," just then his phone rang.

"Is it Aerith?" I grumbled.

Zack looked up in surprise, then looked back down at his phone as if he were checking again. "It's actually Sephiroth. He wants to see me in the office."

"Lazard has been missing for a long time, huh. Go and see Sephiroth, you don't want to keep him waiting after all." I told him.

"Yeah, be back soon." Then Zack left the room. I threw myself down on my bed. I'd known Zack for three years now, I was 17. This was my fifth year keeping my secret about actually being a girl, and Zack had helped me keep that secret these three past years. He was still an idiot, but maybe he was a more important sort of idiot. The discomfort of him seeing my sister still constantly bothered me, it wasn't even that I was scared he'd tell her that I was still alive, something inside of me just disliked the idea of the two of them. I decided to open the window and go visit the slums.

When I got there I went straight to the house that my friends had decided to cram themselves in to. Seven people living in one house in the slums was never a good idea, but even so they managed. "Hello, Felicis." Sarae greeted. Over the three years she had begun to lose her shyness and began to mature. Merule had lost that tired look in her eyes also.

"Hey, any leads on where Xantus might be yet?" I asked.

"Nope, not even Atricus. This is a lot harder than I thought, but if we get even one of the emotion warriors then we'll be able to find them all. Atricus and Xantus are probably together, after all they are siblings." Varst said.

"Yeah," I agreed. My phone rang and I checked my messages.

**From: Zack Fair**

**To: Felicis Gainsborough**

**Where are you? I need to talk to you. **

"Ooh, is that Zack?" Aurale piped taking my phone. "Oh, he needs to talk to you! What does this mean Felicis!" She teased.

"Shut up," I snapped at her. "There's nothing going on with Zack and I, and that message doesn't mean anything! He likes Aerith!"

"It's a really big bummer you know that?" Aurale sighed.

"You guys just keep on trying to find Xantus," I huffed. "I'm leaving."

"To see Zack," Aurale snickered.

"No I'm not!" I cried before storming out of the little house and making my way back to Shinra. I entered my room to see Zack. "Hey, what's wrong? I asked taking off my helmet."

"I'm going off on a mission," Zack told me.

"Where?"

"I don't know."

"Well when are you coming back?"

"I don't know, I could be a long time."

"I see," I said trying not to show him that I was upset.

"I just wanted to say goodbye."

"Yeah, take care." I told him.

"Remember to cut your hair, idiot." Zack grinned. "You wouldn't want to get yourself found out."

"Who're you calling an idiot! You're the real idiot here, Zack." I snapped. Zack laughed just like I knew he would, but then put his hand on my head.

"But really Felicis, I don't want you getting hurt while I'm gone. I won't be here to take care of you anymore, okay?"

"Yeah," I said sadly. Then Zack hugged me tightly.

"Hey, you know I'll be back before you know it, okay?"

"Y-yeah, what are you doing you dummy?" I laughed nervously.

"I don't know," Zack laughed back. He looked me straight in the eyes, the ones that were exactly like his. "I don't know." He said again before he pressed his lips on to mine. Suddenly in was like my body was a livewire. It reacted on its own. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. Last time I'd kissed anyone had been five years ago, and that was Zaneit. Zack was no Zaneit though, with Zack it felt like he would never let go, something about him just drew me to him. When we finally parted and he began to lean back in once more his body suddenly recoiled and pushed me backwards. His eyes were filled with disbelief, and I'm sure mines were too. What were we doing? Were we crazy? I covered my mouth with my arm and looked at him shocked. Zack began to reach for me, but then stopped. "I-" he began. "I have to see Aerith."

My eyes widened, and my blood boiled. Something inside of me just snapped. I took my arm away from my lips and ground my teeth together. "I see." Was all I could say to keep myself from exploding.

"Felicis I-" Zack began.

"Just leave, go see her. I don't care anymore."

"Felicis, I'm sorry… I didn't know what I was doing. It was a mistake." He said, then he stopped when he realized what he had said. "Wait- no."

Tears welled up in my eyes and rolled down my cheeks against my will. _It was a mistake_, he had said. _It was a mistake_. I covered my face with my hands.

"Felicis, I'm so sorry I just-" Zack reached for me again, but I slapped away his hand. When I removed my hands from my face it revealed true rage. I stared at him with hateful eyes, tears still streamed down my cheeks.

"You know Zack? I hate you the most. I hate you so much," I covered my face again. "Everything was going so well until I met you." I sobbed. "But you just had to come along and ruin everything. I hope that you never come back!" I cried. "Go see Aerith and leave! I hope that I never ever see your face again!" I shrunk back against the wall and slid to the floor. "I hate you Zack," I repeated over and over again. "I hate you so much."

I heard the door open, then Zack's distinct footsteps leaving. "I'm sorry Felicis." I heard him whisper before the door shut behind him. Those were the last words he'd said to me before he disappeared. It wasn't until the day after that I realized what a horrible goodbye it had been. I promised myself that when he came back I would properly apologize, but he never did. Not for four years, and it wasn't until four years later that I heard his name being mentioned in a message.

**From: SOLDIER **

**To: Felicis Gainsborough**

**SOLDIER first class, Felicis Gainsborough.**

**Your mission is to assassinate ex-SOLDIER **

**Zack Fair and bring back the subject he has**

**with him. This is an order. **


	14. Chapter 14: The Mission

Chapter 13: The Mission

**From: SOLDIER **

**To: Felicis Gainsborough**

**SOLDIER first class, Felicis Gainsborough.**

**Your mission is to assassinate ex-SOLDIER **

**Zack Fair and bring back the subject he has**

**with him. This is an order. **

I hadn't seen that name in four years. "Zack Fair," I whispered to myself. "Zack Fair." It was almost as if the name had become foreign on my tongue. "Zack Fair," I repeated one last time. "How did that guy look again?" I laughed to myself realizing that I really didn't remember. "It's okay," I told myself. "It has been four years after all, I bet he doesn't even remember how you look like either." I just kept on reading the message over and over again, maybe they'd meant to send it to another person. Of course they didn't though, it clearly said my name at the beginning of the message. "Seriously, they can be kind of cruel can't they? Giving me this mission." Then I looked at the empty bed next to mine. To think that Zack used to sleep there, and now I was going to have to kill him. _But then again Zack is also cruel._ I thought. _All this time I thought he was dead, all I wanted to do was say sorry and he never even came to see me._ Reading over the message one last time I wondered who was the subject that I was supposed to bring back. Then I grabbed Fascinare and put on my uniform. A lot had changed after four years. First of all, SOLDIER found out that I was a girl. Thankfully they made an exception and let me stay. Next, I was a First Class now. Finally, not only was I a First Class I was the best first class, rivaling even Sephiroth in his fame, but Sephiroth's fame had completely transformed in to betrayal and hate.

Once I walked out of my room I was greeted by everyone I walked by. Men were horrible people after all, especially when I was the only girl amongst them and they knew it. The only thing that was stopping them from doing more than hitting on me was the fact that I could kill them with my bare hands if I wanted to. Not only were they horrible, they were cowards, or maybe you could say they're smart in their own way. Once I stepped foot out of the Shinra building I was cornered by Tseng. "Move, I'm not afraid to kill you." I told him fearlessly.

"That, I know already." He replied.

"Then move." I shoved him aside and began to walk away.

"It's about your mission to assassinate Zack," Tseng said. I stopped walking and turned around. Information sure traveled fast among the Turks.

"What about it," I replied.

"We were hoping that you would work with us on this mission." He told me.

"And by that you mean don't kill Zack, and lie to Shinra. Do you think I'd put my life on the line like that?" I scoffed.

"I'd think that if it's for him you would do anything." Tseng said.

I looked at him wide eyed. I was one second away from cutting him in two. He had no right to say something like that to me. "Well some time has passed Tseng," I hissed. "If you haven't noticed I'm not exactly the same as I was four years ago." Then I turned around and began walking again.

"I have a package to deliver to him!" Tseng tried to stop me. "88 letters, from Aerith. I'm sure he'd want to read them."

"Like I care about him and that woman," I snapped continuing to walk.

"She's your sister! You have to care!" Tseng snapped back.

"Don't tell me what I have to care about! I care about a lot of things, but Aerith Gainsborough is not one of them!" Then I muttered. "She's not even my biological sister." And finally left Tseng behind.

I went to the house that all of my friends were living in, in the slums. Though you would step in to the small space and think that it didn't really look like a slum house. Computers were lined up on the walls, solely for Let's hacking skills that we tended to take advantage of. "Hey, got a job for me," Let grinned already knowing by the look on my face as I entered the house.

"Yeah, search where Hojo's soldiers are headed. I'm pretty sure that they would already be on his tail anyways," I told him.

"_Him_? Who's _him_?" Rael asked.

"Zack," I replied.

"Black haired, blue eyed Zack Fair?" Rael asked surprised. "The one that disappeared for 4 years?"

"Yeah," I said with a little bitterness in my voice. "That guy."

"Finally looking for him?" Aurale asked. "It's about time."

"No," I replied giving her my phone and showing her the message. Her eyes widened and everyone gathered around her to see.

"Felicis…" Serae began.

"I don't think that you should do this," Merule finished.

"Don't you think it's time to quit SOLDIER anyways Felicis?" Larch asked. "They're always making you do things that you don't want to do."

"Can't," I replied. "They're always giving me important information. I need to stick with them until I find something that can help me with finding Xantus, and everyone else." I felt like I would never be able to live with myself if I just forgot about looking for them. Even if it was just once I wanted to see all of us together again. I took my phone back. "Can you guys back me up with this mission?" I asked.

Their faces lighted up. I knew that they loved it when I asked them for help. They were always against me going off alone on missions without help.

"Maybe we should try out for SOLDIER also. I'm sure we could all handle the surgery," Larch suggested.

"You guys can't, anyways girls aren't allowed to be SOLDIER remember? I'm the only exception, and I wouldn't let you guys become SOLDIER even if you wanted to." I told them. "It feels a lot better when you guys are here, and safe."

All of a sudden the computer monitor began to beep and Let sat himself back on to his seat and started typing quickly. "I just have some codes I have to break," he said. "Easy stuff." His fingers moved over the keys lightning fast and in less than I minute we were in. "They're moving towards Midgar," Let told us. "Zack should be on the outskirts."

"He's trying to come back," I said quietly to myself. "Because he wants to see Aerith." I thought of the 88 letters that Tseng had for him to read. _I'm sure he would want to read them._ Tseng had said. He really would want to read those. Then I shook the thought out of my head. "Let's go then," I told them. They all began to gear up and loaded themselves with weapons that were stashed all around the small house.

"Where'd you leave the motorcycles, bro?" Rael asked Varst.

"They're in that garage we bought in sector 8," Varst told him, slipping a knife in to his belt, and little vials of poisonous gas. "You guys should probably get air masks to, wouldn't want any of you breathing in any of this stuff."

"Is there any way that you could make some medicine that could make all of us immune to the gas?" Merule sighed. "It's tiring having to wear these masks all the time. You could save us a lot of pain."

"The way you're a pain to me?" Varst grinned at her. Merule's cheeks flushed a bright red. Varst loved it when she got red, he would always manage to embarrass her in any way he could.

"No need for couple arguments now," Aurale sighed, pulling her sea blue hair back in to a pony tail.

I tightened my pony tail, and agreed with her. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yeah," they all said. We all ran to the parking garages in Sector 8 to go retrieve our motorbikes, we snapped on our biking goggles, and hopped on. Aurale and I took one bike, Merule and Serae took the other, and Varst and Rael took the last one. I revved the engine and then took off in a flash. On motorbikes this fast it would take one or two ours to find Zack in the outskirts.

"Are you really serious about this mission, Felicis!" Aurale yelled so that I could hear her over the engine.

"I've never taken any other mission this seriously!" I replied to her.

_Zack Fair, I'm coming for you. _


	15. Chapter 15: Hello Goodbye

Chapter 14: Hello Goodbye

The motorcycle engines kicked up dust behind them. There was nothing but sandy, rocky, orange, sun-dyed terrain around us for miles and miles. And there was one road, covered with dust and tire marks. One dusty road that was like a straight path right in to Midgar. One dusty road that everyone followed so that they wouldn't get lost in the outskirts. One dusty road that I knew I would find Zack Fair on. This was one of the biggest missions I had gotten in years, the last big mission I had gone on included hunting for the ex-SOLDIER Genesis. I found him, lost him, and failed the mission. This, I knew was a mission that I had to do without fail. "I'm going to go faster!" I yelled loud enough over the engine so that Aurale could hear me and hold on the me tighter.

"Okay!" She yelled back and got a tighter grip around me waist. I revved the engine and increased the speed on the bike. I couldn't too far from where he was now. Somehow I could just feel that he was nearby and the thought that he was close tugged at my heart. I wanted to grip my chest and scream at it so that it would stop, but I knew it wouldn't help. "Four years," I scoffed. "I'm really an idiot aren't I?" And as I increased the speed some more the engine consumed my voice.

Our motorcycles neared an army of regular soldiers. Zack had to be in there somewhere, something in my heart ached at the thought that he might be dead. But wasn't he going to be dead when he saw me anyways? It would just lessen the guilt of me having to kill him right? I decided not to think about it and drove my motorcycle right through the army of soldiers. As they jumped out of the way they swore. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" They cried, along with a few other nasty words.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" I said removing my goggles.

Many of their jaws dropped, some of the daring ones raised their guns, then they all charged. Aurale jumped up removing a machine gun from her back and firing away. She cleared the whole front row of the men surrounding us, then I removed Fascinare and cleared the second row. Since we were surrounded Aurale and I backed up against each other. "You take that half, I'll take the other." I whispered.

She nodded, and we jumped away from each other again and continued to fight. In a few minutes more motorcycle engines came our way and in came Merule, Serae, Varst, Rael, Larch, and Let. Merule fired daggers from the gadget on her hand at the soldiers and all but two of the daggers hit home, then she lifted the other arm firing again, then reloading. Rael joined me with his sword and Serae attacked with her knife like spear. All of a sudden Varst called for us to put on our breathing masks and immediately we did as we were told. He slammed the vial to the ground and it exploded in to a deadly mist. Immediately soldiers began to fall around us. When the mist finally cleared there were hundreds of dead bodies lying at our feet. About a hundred men were left standing in this lake of death, and standing quite a distance away from my group and I was Zack Fair. Once again I felt a tugging at my heart, now I remembered how he looked like completely, and I was left wondering how he could have changed so little in four years. Quickly I turned my gaze over to the hundred soldiers left standing. "Kill them," I ordered my group. They nodded and we charged at them. In a matter of moments the hundred men were laying in pools of their own blood. Finally I looked at Zack again. He still had that scar that Angeal had given him so long ago, it would probably never go away. His mako blue eyes widened as he saw me. I began to walk towards him, and put Fascinare back on to my back.

"Felicis? Is that you?" He asked. Even his voice was the same, you'd think that after four years he would have changed even a little bit. He had a bullet wound on his shoulder and a few cuts here and there, but other than that he looked completely fine.

"Yeah, it's me." I replied. "It's been four years, Zack."

"So I've been told, you look a lot older." Zack said amazed.

"And you haven't changed a bit. You're even still wearing your uniform."

"You're not still it SOLDIER, are you?" He asked looking at my clothes which consisted of black boots, shorts, and a zip up vest.

"Yeah, I'm a first class now. They found out I was a girl and made an exception." I explained. "Actually, I'm out on a mission right now."

"I see, well you should probably get going with that now shouldn't you?" He laughed.

I didn't understand why he was exactly the same. Maybe if he had changed even a little bit it would make this mission a lot easier for me. "Yeah, I probably should, shouldn't I?" Then I drew Fascinare and swung downward as hard as I could.

Zack quickly blocked my attack with his Buster Sword. "Felicis!" He cried out in shock.

"Sorry Zack, but this is my mission." I told him jumping back, and lunging back in to the battle. Once again he blocked my attack.

"Don't do this Felicis. Can't you see that SOLDIER isn't the organization we thought it was? Just leave it!" His voice strained as my sword came down heavier and heavier.

"And be hunted down like you? Like Genesis? Like Sephiroth! I care about my life a lot more than that! SOLDIER gives me information I need, as long as they do that I will always be in SOLDIER!" I yelled. Then Fascinare glided over Zack's shoulder. He immediately recoiled and clutched his wound. Blood seeped out from under his hand. My heart went numb, but my body jumped right back in to another blow. Zack tried to dodge, but my sword still caught his chest. I was already winning by a landslide, there was no way he could survive now, but I wondered how I could be winning already. Zack had once been a lot stronger than me, and even in four years he could not have become this weak unless he hadn't picked up his sword in four years. I jumped forward one last time aiming my blade right at his neck, but my body stopped right before I cut him.

"Felicis?" Zack said sounding half surprised, and half relieved.

"What the hell happened to you Zack?" I gritted my teeth. "You disappeared for four years without a word, you become a wanted person of SOLDIER, and you've become really weak. Are you even the Zack I knew?"

"Felicis, have you really not been told anything?" He asked.

"Know what!" I cried inching Fascinare closer to his neck. "Tell me! Do you know how worried I was when I heard you disappeared!" I quickly covered my mouth and took back my words.

"The truth is Felicis, you don't want to kill me, do you?" Zack said.

"Shut-up!" My blade inched even closer to his neck. "Even if I don't want to kill you I have to! Anyways, why should I care about you! You left me for four years, and you were always leading me on. Even in the end before you left!" I remembered when he kissed me before his last mission.

"I'm sorry Felicis, I don't know what to say about that! I don't know why it happened! And I would've come back as soon as I could, but they used me as an experiment and put me in a coma for four years!" Zack explained. "Me and Cloud."

"Cloud?" I said in disbelief. "Cloud is the test subject you're carrying around?"

Zack nodded.

I swung my sword away from his neck and knocked the Buster Sword out of his grasp. "Dammit!" I cried. "Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!"

"Felicis."

"Why am I risking my life for you!" I stomped my foot. "A person like you deserves to die… but I can't kill you! You've become so pitiful Zack Fair!" Then I picked up his Buster Sword and put a cut on my face with it, then my arm, and then my leg. I winced in pain with every cut, and then finally I put a deep cut in to my side. I dropped the Buster Sword and fell to my knees holding my wound.

"Felicis! What the hell are you doing!" Zack dropped down besides me.

"Shut-up! I'm only doing this because you didn't put up a fight at all! Do you think SOLDIER will really believe that I killed you if I came back completely unharmed!" I told him slowly getting back to my feet. "The Turks are looking for you, they should be here soon. Give me Cloud."

"Why are you taking Cloud?" Zack protested.

"Because I need to complete my mission, and the second half of my mission is to retrieve the test subject." I told him. "And I'm taking the Buster Sword. You won't need it anyways."

"Felicis, you should come too. You shouldn't be stuck inside of SOLDIER. You have to escape." Zack said.

"Shut-up, I'm staying with SOLDIER. Anyways why would you need me to be there when you'll have Aerith," I tried to cover up the pain in my voice. "Tseng has something for you, and when you get back to Aerith… don't tell her that I'm alive. She still doesn't know."

"Why are you still hiding yourself from her Felicis? Aerith loves you, you're her sister." Zack asked with a distressed look on his face.

"Because I really despise that woman," I smirked answering him. "She really annoys me." I spotted Cloud laying motionless leaned against a rock. "What happened to him?"

"Mako poisoning. He's in a coma." Zack explained.

"Nothing Varst can't fix." I said, and called for Varst. He immediately came over. "Varst, carry him and take care of him when we get back." He nodded and lifted Cloud to his bike.

"Felicis, please don't go." Zack begged as I began to walk back to my bike.

"You of all people have no right to ask me for a favor." I said getting on to my bike behind Aurale who was going to drive because of my wounds. "Take care," I told him as my bike rode off.

I rested my head on Aurale's back. "I couldn't kill him," I sighed to myself. "Could it be that I still-" but the engine's roars once again enveloped my words.


	16. Chapter 16: Welcome Back

Chapter 15: Welcome Back

I sat next to the bed that Zack used to sleep in. Cloud had now occupied that spot. He had been out cold for two days now, even more considering that he was unconscious while traveling with Zack too. It was mako poisoning, even his eyes had changed to mako blue. I couldn't find it in myself to leave his side. Even Cloud hadn't aged one bit, he still looked 17. "You're supposed to be 21 you idiot." I scoffed. Then I remembered Cloud's mother. Supposedly no one in the village of Nibelheim survived the fire the night Sephiroth was there, Varst and Rael were devastated when they heard. "Sorry about your mother Cloud," I said. "Sorry about everyone in Nibelheim." Then I started feeling stupid. It wasn't like he was listening anyways. Then all of a sudden I heard him whisper my name.

"Felicis?" His voice was raspy. "Felicis, is that you?"

"Cloud!" I cried, shocked.

He opened his eyes and saw me standing above him. "Ah! You're not Felicis! Sorry!" Cloud apologized.

"You're pretty jumpy." I laughed relieved. "You've been out cold for a long time Cloud."

"How do you know my name?" Cloud asked confused. "You kind of remind me of my friend."

"Cloud, I _am _Felicis," I told him.

His eyes grew wide. "Felicis is a boy though."

"That's what everyone thought. Zack knew, but no one else." I explained.

"S-so, Felicis… you are girl!" He was completely shocked. "How did I not realize that! You were always really short, but I thought you were just a really short guy…"

"Nope, girl," I smiled.

"Where are we?" He asked still surprised. And I didn't blame him at all. Who wouldn't be surprised if they found out the friend they thought was a boy was actually a girl?

"Shinra," I explained to him. "You're in SOLDIER headquarters right now."

"And… you're really Felicis? I still can't believe it, Felicis acted like such a guy though." Cloud laughed without humor.

"Trust me, I'm Felicis. Ask me anything, I'll prove it to you." I told him.

"When did we first meet?"

"In the Modeo Ravine. We were about to infiltrate the facility there. After words Zack went to fight Genesis and we went in to Modeoheim. In the bathhouse there we were attacked by Angeal." I explained to him in detail so that he would finally believe me. "You tried to protect me."

He looked at me surprised, then laughed like he'd hit a realization because he probably had. "It really is you. I thought you might've been his sister or something that was posing as him."

"You haven't grown at all though! It's been four years and you haven't grown an inch! You still look 17!" I laughed at him.

Once again his eyes were wide again. "…Four… years?"

"Oh… you didn't know yet did you…? You were unconscious so you didn't know… that it'd been four years since you went to Nibelheim." I said guiltily. Maybe he wasn't ready to know that yet.

"Wait… this is all too much to handle at once. You're Felicis, it's been four years, and… what happened to Zack?" Cloud asked. "He was with me before, I remember that much."

A number of thoughts went through my head at that moment.

_Do I tell Cloud what I did? That I betrayed SOLDIER to keep Zack alive?_

_Do I tell Cloud that I killed Zack? _

_If I tell him what will he do? Will he tell SOLDIER?_

_If I don't tell him…what will happen if he ever finds out?_

_Can I trust him?_

_Will he hate me if he thinks I killed Zack?_

_What do I do?_

"Zack is dead," I managed to get out. It was the last thing that popped in my head. I felt like I couldn't trust anyone with my secret, I hoped Zack wouldn't tell anyone either. Then I mentally apologized to Cloud over and over and over again, this really was a lot to take on. "I'm sorry, I tried to save him… but in the end he was killed by the Shinra army." Tears began to well up in my eyes, I didn't even know why I was crying. It wasn't like Zack was really dead or anything, but I was crying. Maybe it was because now that I finally knew he was alive again I had to treat him like a dead person. Just when I thought I finally had him back I was forced to lose him again, all this just to keep him alive. All this pain for just one person that I couldn't even see anymore. "I'm sorry," I choked out while biting my lip. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault he's dead," Cloud's face was straining to keep calm. Then he walked over to me and held me. Cloud has always been a good friend to me.

"Cloud," I said. He released me, then I walked over to the corner of the room where the buster sword was leaning on the wall. I'd cleaned it of all my blood before I propped it there and as I picked it up I only heard one phrase that Zack had said to me before, it was a phrase that Angeal had also said to him. _Use brings out wear, tear, and rust._ Why that line popped up in my head as I raised the Buster sword in to the air? I don't know, but as I handed it to Cloud I repeated it to him. "Use brings out wear, tear, and rust. So treat it carefully."

"Zack said the same thing to me once," Cloud smiled. "He also told me that his sword represented his dreams and his honor."

"Yeah, it did." I replied.

Cloud took the Buster sword in his hands, "the last time I used this… I tried to kill Sephiroth." He whispered.

I didn't say anything. I didn't want to conjure up any unwanted memories he had. But I guess in the end, it was Cloud who killed Sephiroth. "What are you going to do now?" I asked.

"I'm going to live. Be myself and live out my dreams. I'm going to become a SOLDIER." He smiled.

I nodded, "I think that would be a good idea. Always stay yourself Cloud."

I said that then, but after that day… Cloud was not the same Cloud I knew anymore.


	17. Chapter 17: Lucis and Haud Affectus

Chapter 16: Lucis and Haud Affectus

"Hey sleeping beauty, wake up!" Cloud said smothering my face with a pillow. I choked on the fabric and immediately shot up out of my bed.

"What are you trying to do, kill me!" I screamed at him. He just continued laughing. Then I realized I had to back off, there was no way I could yell at Cloud when he was smiling like that, it was too hard. "You're lucky you're cute." I snapped hitting him across the head with my pillow.

"You know it," Cloud replied arrogantly. "All the girls want me."

Cloud had been my roommate for about half a year now, and in that half a year he had quickly, and successfully jumped right in to being a SOLDIER First Class. It was also in that six months that his personality changed drastically. He went from being the sweet and loving Cloud that I knew to being the cunning, cocky, jokester a stereotypical SOLDIER First Class was portrayed as. He'd also become more like Zack, no that 'more' was an understatement. Cloud Strife had become Zack Fair. I didn't know how that was physically or mentally possible but he had done it. "Whatever," I replied. "Why are you waking me up so early?"

"You forgot already? Come on Felicis, you can do better than that. We're going a mission together today, remember?" Cloud sighed flicking my forehead. "Bad girl."

"Oh, yeah. Now I remember." I said.

"Lighten up Felicis, you get to go on a mission with a hot guy." He smirked. "Many girls would kill to have this experience."

"Oh, well that's ironic." I said without humor.

"Mad at me?" Cloud asked wrapping his arms around my waist.

"No," I sighed. "Aren't you rather touchy feely this morning."

"Really? I didn't notice at all!" Cloud responded sarcastically raising his arms in to the air as if to say 'I'm innocent'.

"Look away, I'm going to change." I told him.

"Got it," Cloud said facing away from me.

This was something that I was glad for. The fact that even though he was cunning, cocky, and a jokester he had the decency to look away when I changed. "Thanks."

t

Cloud and I got on our motorcycles and headed off on our mission. Our mission was to investigate Banora, where Zack had apparently killed Genesis, at least according to Cloud. We arrived after a couple of hours and left our bikes under the corridor of Banora apples. "I remember those," Cloud said pointing to the dumbapples. "Zack gave one to me after he killed Genesis, one for me, one for Genesis, and one for Angeal or Lazard I guess." Cloud still didn't remember everything from his travels with Zack back to Midgar, but at some points in time small things like these would trigger more memories. "Then he was reading a letter from a girl named Aerith, and told me that we had to go back to Midgar."

I flinched when I heard the last part like I was about to be slapped. It hurt, the fact that he was coming back for Aerith, but not for me.

"You okay?" Cloud asked patting my head. "Sorry, I shouldn't talk about Zack that much. Sometimes it just slips."

"It's okay," I replied. "Hey, Cloud." I began.

"Yeah, what's up?" He asked.

"What if I told you I might quit SOLDIER soon?" I asked back.

The question seemed to catch him by surprise because his eyes seemed to grow wide and waited a few minutes to respond. Then he finally said. "I would ask you why, and I would ask you if you wanted me to go with you."

Now I was the one that was surprised. "Why?"

"Because I don't want to leave you alone. Because I want to protect you Felicis." Cloud smiled.

"I'm pretty sure that I'd be able to take care of myself though." I told him.

"But still… I want to take care of you." He said. "Are you really planning on quitting SOLDIER?"

"Maybe," I sighed. "I guess back when I was 14 and Zack was with me it was fun, but for these past few years there's only one reason that I'd stayed in SOLDIER and I don't think I'm ever going achieve that reason anymore."

"Something about Zack being dead?" Cloud asked.

"It has nothing to do with Zack. It's just something from my childhood that I can't get over. An old friend actually, to tell the truth… a lot of old friends." I explained but not too detailed. I just really wanted to find Xantus and the rest of the gang. Maybe if they knew that I was alive everything could be the same again. Of course being stuck with the same objective for seven years was tiring so it was only normal that I was losing hope, right? I didn't even know if the rest of the gang were alive anymore, I had the friends that I'd found with me, why wasn't that enough?

Cloud seemed to be lost in his train of thought.

"Cloud? You alright?"

"Yeah, old friends are good. I don't think you should give up." Cloud said. "You should keep at it."

"Maybe." I smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem, I'm always here for you after all. Don't forget that." Cloud grinned back at me. It was times like these that I didn't know how I felt about Cloud acting like Zack. Sometimes I just needed Zack next to me, but he was never there. Cloud was a little like Zack for me, and even though it was horrible because it was like I was using him as a replacement I couldn't help myself. Then I would always remember his words six months ago and wonder what really happened. He seemed to set on being himself and entering SOLDIER, why did he change so drastically?

"Hey, I think we're here," Cloud said when we were staring the green arms of the life stream in the face. "This is where Zack went down and killed Genesis."

"I see," I said. I was about to go down the crater when I heard a rustling noise in the bushes behind me. Quickly I drew my sword and turned around. Immediately I felt my jaw drop. There was a boy, about my age with white hair. He was wearing all black and a white scarf, his eyes were wide.

"No way," we both said at the same time. Then I put Fascinare back on to by back. "Xantus." Right when he heard me say his name he began running. "Wait Xantus!" I screamed running after him. It'd been eight years, I'd been looking for him for seven years. He was so close! How did I not realize it? How did I not find him?

"Felicis!" Cloud cried running with me. "Who is he!"

"The reason I'm still in SOLDIER!" I replied. We chased Xantus in to the abandoned town and there Cloud pinned him down.

"Can't you stay still at all!" Cloud groaned as Xantus tried to squirm away.

"Why are you running from me Xantus! Where have you been all these years? Do you know how long I've been looking for you? All the trouble that the rest of the group have to look for you?" I cried.

"I knew you were alive," he snapped back still trying to get out of Cloud's grasp. "I chose not to see you all, I have my own reasons." All of a sudden a grey haired girl jumped off the roofs of one of the abandoned houses. She was tall, wearing a white coat with black shorts on, and long black socks with brown combat boots. Her eyes were like a void of nothingness. The word _emotionless_ appeared in my mind and I realized who this girl was. "Atricus," I said in disbelief. A knife appeared in her hand and it took me a moment to realize it had come from her belt loop on her shorts, then she was in front of me. I drew Fascinare immediately and her small knife smashed against my sword. It shocked me how much weight she was putting on the knife, so much that I wasn't ready for it and skidded backwards.

"Release my brother," Atricus ordered. Her voice was as empty as ever, same Atricus from nine years ago.

"Atricus, it's me, Felicis." I told her.

"I know, Felicis. So why would you pin down my brother?" She said it more like a statement than a question.

"He was running, I've been looking for you guys for so long I didn't want to lose track of you guys again." I explained. "Please, I don't want to fight you." I said lowering Fascinare carefully.

"Okay," she replied dropping her weapon. "I don't want to fight you either. You are like a sister to me also. I'm happy that you are safe after so long." She said even though she didn't look too happy, but she was emotionless, she'd been that way for as long as I could remember. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Atricus! What are you doing!" Xantus cried.

She glared at her older brother. "You're an idiot big brother. She's Felicis, why would you run from her? Even if _that_ will happen don't you want to be with them all too? I don't want to be isolated anymore."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. Cloud released Xantus and they both brushed themselves off.

"There was a dead legend among the ancients long ago of the original ancient, Eve. She is supposedly the strongest and holds the power to obliterate Gaia in a moment. The other ancients feared Eve and sealed her for 10,000 years, they also separated her powers so that she would not be whole." Atricus explained.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked even more confused than before.

"It means that we're the shattered powers of Eve." Xantus replied. "Only ancients can wield the same power as you SOLDIERS use in your 'materia' or 'mako' energy. Ancients are like enhanced humans that were born that way only we don't need materia to do the same things that you SOLDIERS do. Don't you think this is special?" He told me opening his palm. A flash of light flew from his palm. "I've been running away from you guys for eight years, right after I found this legend and realized my own power. The eighteen of us are Eve. If we're together we'll destroy Gaia, if saving the world includes me never seeing you guys ever again then fine by me."

"That can't be true though Xantus. I mean I can't do any of that stuff, it's all just a legend." I said.

"Yeah, you can't do anything like me because you, Felicis Gainsborough are Eve's vessel, her host. You are the only one among us that is strong enough to host Eve. Do you know why you survived that bombing that day? Because Eve saved you, because you are her vessel." Xantus pointed at me. "Atricus is also one of the vessels, that's why she's emotionless. The other nine of us are Eve's shattered emotions. I will protect my sister."

"Brother, I don't care about any of this stuff. I just want to see everyone again." Atricus told him. Then she turned to me. "You have a PHS right? Call everyone, I want to see them again."

"I don't know where Zaneit and the rest are though," I explained.

"I can find a way to fix that, just call the other eight." She ordered me.

I dialed Varst's number and waited through the rings until he picked up. "Felicis? What's up? Aren't you supposed to be on a mission right now?"

"Come to Banora right away."

"Why? What's wrong?" Varst sounded worried.

"I found Xantus and Atricus." Without a word I heard the rushing of footsteps and the revving of motorcycle engines. Then he hung up.


	18. Chapter 18: Together Again

Chapter 17: Together Again

Everyone arrived faster than I'd expected. I could hear them right when they entered Banora, the revving of their motorcycles, and their rushed voices. Then they came piling in to the deserted village jumping on Xantus and Atricus. Everyone was laughing, and there were tears among almost everyone. "So these are your friends?" Cloud asked smiling.

"Yeah, you're actually the first one that's met them." I laughed.

"Well they seem like nice people so I don't see why you haven't introduced them to anybody else." He shrugged. Then Serae dragged Rael over to Cloud and pushed him forward.

"See, they look exactly alike, just like Mrs. Strife said!" Serae said as Cloud and Rael looked right at each other. They both looked dumbstruck, it was probably like looking in the mirror. They shared the same spiky blonde hair, and had about the same build. The only difference was that Cloud's eyes were a mako enhanced blue, and Rael's were a very dark brown that almost made them look black. Also, Rael had a huge black tattoo of fire that you just couldn't miss on his left shoulder. It probably represented Varst.

"Wait, my mom?" Cloud asked surprised.

"Yeah, I used to help your mom out back in Nibelheim a couple years ago. I left after I met up with Felicis again though. I heard about the Nibelheim incident, really sorry about that." Rael said.

"I see, thanks." Cloud responded. "And nice to meet you all."

"Nice to meet you too," Aurale smiled. "It's always nice to know that someone is looking after Felicis when we're not there. I mean, first it was Zack but now that he's gone in to-" She was about to finish the sentence with hiding when I interrupted her.

"Aurale!" I said as loud as I could.

"No, it's okay Felicis. I'm okay with it now, remember? I'm going to live for Zack. After all, that's the most I can do for the guy who saved my life." Cloud put his hand on my head just like Zack would.

"Yeah," I replied uneasily. "Guys, you can get Xantus and Atricus back to Midgar? Cloud and I still need to finish our mission."

They nodded hopping on their bikes and pulling the both of them with them. "We'll show you guys around the house when we get back. There's not much to it though." Varst laughed.

"See you soon," Atricus said to me trying to sound as inviting as she could, but her lack of expression didn't help much. I nodded and watched them speed away on the bikes.

My focus changed back to Cloud, "should we go then?" I asked.

Cloud and I had been wandering underneath Banora for hours now, endlessly slicing down monsters of all sorts. "There's nothing down here!" I groaned. "Just some Loveless scene stones and monsters!"

"The battle spot must've collapsed after Zack and Genesis finished fighting." Cloud guessed.

"Probably," I agreed. "That's probably what we'll tell Shinra right? What time is it anyways?"

"Late," Cloud replied bluntly.

"Helpful," I told him sarcastically. "Let's just go back up top now." I sighed. I agreed and we both went back up. "That was exhausting."

"Eh, it was okay," Cloud shrugged.

"Watch out Cloud. If you keep acting that cool you'll have girls chasing you left and right." I laughed jokingly.

"Doesn't sound half bad." Cloud laughed back. "Maybe you'll even fall for me."

"Don't push your luck," I smiled while elbowing him.

"Maybe I will, maybe I won't," Cloud smirked putting his hands behind his head while we walked to our motorcycles.

"Well just let me tell you my friend, cockiness will get you nowhere in life," I advised getting on to my bike and revving up the engine. He did the same while shrugging a laughing. Everything seemed fine until I got back to Shinra and to my dorm. Cloud went to go get us something to eat so I went back to the room by myself, and on my bed was a letter. It was a letter that caught me completely off guard from the point where I read the name inside.

_Dear Felicis, _

_It's been about six months since I last saw you. I really miss you and I have to see you. I was hoping you would be here but you weren't so I just left this letter for you. I hope that you come and see me Felicis. I want it to be like before, I want to be together again…_

Cloud came back about a half an hour later holding some take out. "Felicis." He called as he opened the door, but soon he realized that she wasn't there. "Where did she go…" Cloud said worriedly as he looked at the window which was cracked all the way open… open enough for Felicis to jump right out and run away.


	19. Chapter 19: How to Move On

Chapter 18: How to Move On

_Dear Felicis, _

_It's been about six months since I last saw you. I really miss you and I have to see you. I was hoping you would be here but you weren't so I just left this letter for you. I hope that you come and see me Felicis. I want it to be like before, I want to be together again. Nothing's been the same since I came back to Midgar, at least not without you. Aerith is doing well if you didn't know, the flowers are selling really well now. I mostly spend my time helping her with business and of course hiding from Shinra… truthfully I was a little upset when you didn't visit me. I don't want you to be mad at me anymore Felicis, and I don't want us to be this distant. We're friends and our friendship means more than anything in the world to me. I'm almost positive that you want to see me too, Felicis. Meet me at the old church in the slums at 11 p.m. tonight. Aerith will have gone to bed by then. Please come Felicis, I need to see you._

_Sincerely,_

_Zack Fair_

I read the letter over and over again when finally I crumpled it up and threw it at a wall. I stared at the letter laying on the ground and ended up picking it right back up again. Then I just sat on a bench in the alleyway of LOVELESS Ave. Tears rolled down my cheeks. Why couldn't the idiot just leave me alone already? Why did he always have to go and do things like this? "I hate you," I whispered under my breath. "Stupid idiot." Like I would go and meet up with him. He was obviously out of his mind, but even though I thought all of these things it didn't make me want to see him any less. Truthfully, I wanted to see him more than anything in the world and that made Zack correct, which made me even angrier. After about an hour of sitting on the bench feeling numb inside and out I checked to clock. It was 10pm already. "Cloud must be getting worried," I sighed. "I should probably head back."

"Damn straight I was getting worried," Cloud said suddenly and I turned to see him standing right in front of the alleyway. "And what do you think you're doing sitting here alone?" His smile somehow lifted me up a little bit.

"I'm sorry," I replied as he walked over and sat down next to me. "I just had to think about something."

Cloud looked down at the letter in my hand. "Apparently he wants to see you." He told me reading part of the letter. I quickly crumpled up the letter even more so that it was completely unreadable. "Who is it?" Cloud asked. I stayed silent hoping that he would just drop the question, I wasn't about to tell Cloud that Zack was actually alive and that I'd lied to him. "I see, so you don't want to talk about it."

I nodded, "It doesn't matter anyways. I'm not going to see him."

"Why not?" Cloud asked. "You want to don't you?" Yeah, he was right. I really wanted to see him, that was all I really wanted to do these past six months. I wanted to see him so badly. "I think that you should go see him."

"Why? What does this have to do with you anyways?" I wondered, not meaning to sound rude.

He looked at me with clear and unwavering eyes like the comment didn't hurt him at all. It was almost like he didn't hear it until he said. "It has a lot to do with me." Then he laughed without humor. "You aren't the kind of girl that would realize something like this very easily though." Then with a smirk on his face and those clear fearless eyes he told me, "I like you, Felicis."

I looked at him wide eyed. He was right I'd never realized this. Then something inside of me just snapped. "Idiot!" I snapped standing up and stomping my foot. "The Cloud I know wouldn't be able to say something like that with a straight face! I'm sick and tired of you acting like Zack, you're not him and you will never be!" I began to walk away.

Cloud's face went completely blank, but still he got up and grabbed my arm. He looked scared, or worried but I couldn't understand just what that was. "Where are you going?" He asked. Then I shook my arm out of his grasp.

"I'm going to go see the guy! What else would I be doing? After all, isn't that what you wanted me to do?" I said firmly and stormed away from him. I felt completely motivated to confront Zack now, but as I got closer and closer to the slums my motivation slowly began to die. Suddenly I felt scared, and the more I thought about I couldn't believe that I'd just left Cloud like that. It was a completely childish move from me, I wasn't a kid anymore so I shouldn't have acted like one. It was already past 11pm, there was no guaranteeing that Zack would even still be there. Finally I took a deep breath and entered the slums. I tried to avoid as many people as I could, entering the slums was a lot harder now because I didn't have anything to cover my face anymore. It was late anyways so there weren't a lot of people out, so that worked out a little better than I thought it would. When I got to the old church I stood outside just staring at it. People must've worked hard to put it back together after it was bombed, and since the bombing they'd completely covered up the sky so the air was harder to breathe. I pushed open the doors and saw that the church was completely lit by candles, because if it were otherwise it would be pitch black.

"Felicis, is that you?" Zack asked from the back of the church. It was still a little hard to see, even with the candles so I had to squint my eyes to see him sitting on one of the pews by the flowers.

"Yeah," I responded. "It's me." I heard him get up from the pews, but I didn't know that he was coming over to me until I felt his strong arms wrap around me. He was still so tall, even after four years I felt small compared to him. "How pitiful," I laughed. "I'm still shorter than someone with a 19 year old body." Then I pushed him away and moved away from him. "I didn't come here to act friendly with you, Zack."

"Well you wouldn't have come if you didn't want to see me either, so don't act so distant." He smiled. "I just happy that you came, I was scared that you wouldn't."

"I shouldn't have," I muttered under my breath.

"But you did, so it doesn't matter." He said. "I really did want to see you, Felicis."

"You only said that a million times in that letter you left me." I sighed. "And as I said Zack, I'm not here to become friends with you again. I came to tell you to never ever pull a stunt like this again." Zack began to look a little confused. "I really mean it Zack. What if it was Cloud that found the letter and not me? He would've found out that I was lying to him. Anyways, he would've gotten the wrong idea about the both of us which would have been even worse."

Zack grabbed my hand. "Why would that be worse?" He looked really serious about getting an answer from me.

"You have Aerith already! I don't want him thinking that you like me!" I told him like it was the most obvious thing on earth. "And he's my roommate so I don't want things to be weird between us!"

"You shouldn't be rooming with guys!" Zack cried defensively.

I scoffed. "You're one to talk, Zack. We were roommates for three years and I didn't hear you complaining about that at all."

"Well that's different! You were _my_ roommate, I wouldn't have tried anything with you. I don't know about other guys!" Zack blushed.

"What are we, 16 years old?" I snapped. "We haven't been 16 for a really long time Zack! Both of us need to stop acting like kids already and grow up. We just need to forget about what happened in the past and move on!"

"Well it might be easier for you to forget, because for you it's been a lot longer, but I can't forget. For me it only feels like I've been without you for a couple months, but for you it's been four years! I still haven't forgot everything, and I haven't stopped regretting the past yet!" Zack said.

"What do you have to regret, Zack! You're with Aerith, you don't have to worry about missions and leaving her behind anymore! You've gotten everything you've ever wanted! You love Aerith so much that it sickens me already!" I said back irritated.

"I regret it!" he cried. "I regret leaving you to go see Aerith the day that I kissed you. I should've stayed with you and made my feelings clear. You said you wanted to apologize to me right after we left, but I wanted to tell you the truth right after I left. If I did then we wouldn't be this way right now! I love y-"

"Stop!" I interrupted him. "I don't want to hear it anymore!" I shut my eyes and covered my ears. "You have Aerith already! What more do you want!"

"I want you!" Zack announced, then he grabbed my hand so that I couldn't cover my ears anymore. "I love _you_, Felicis. Not Aerith, not anybody else, you." His eyes were clear and fearless, and as he leaned in and kissed me I thought of Cloud. How their eyes were exactly the same when they confessed, and how when I called him out on acting like Zack he looked paralyzed.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, stopping the kiss. "I don't feel the same way anymore. I loved you, but not anymore. That's all I had to say to you. That's the reason I wanted to see you so badly, because I wanted you to finally understand this. Sorry. I have to go back to Cloud." I began to walk away from him. This was the final moment, I had no more regrets with Zack. Things worked out exactly how they were supposed to. Zack grabbed my hand and held it so tight that it hurt. "Ow! What the hell!" I cried.

"So you're going to pull the same stunt I did to you four years ago? That's cold Felicis." Zack said quietly referring to when he kissed me and told me he had to go to Aerith. This time it really was me. We kissed and I told him I had to go to Cloud.

"Well maybe you understand how I felt now, Zack. This is probably how it was meant to be." I sighed.

"I'm not letting you go. You let me go back then and things ended horribly, I'm not going to just let you walk away from me." Zack told me. "You like Cloud don't you?"

I looked at him shocked. "What did you say!"

"I can make you happier than he can, Felicis. He's a little messed up from the experimenting too. He has Sephiroth cells inside of him, he'll always be tied to him." He admitted.

"How is that possible!" I asked worriedly. "How do you know something like that! You're lying!"

"I read one of the reports after I broke out of the lab. He's the only one that was compatible, but it still poisoned him." Zack explained.

"There's got to be a way to get it out of him!" I protested. "There has to be! You know one right! Tell me, I'll definitely do something about it!"

Zack turned his gaze from me so that he didn't have to look at me. "Getting so worked up over him… you really do have feelings for him, don't you?" He scoffed. "I don't know a way to help Cloud." Zack let go of my hand. "Felicis, you said that I loved Aerith so much that it sickens you, but you were wrong. I should be saying that to you." Then finally he turned his gaze back to me, and I saw the saddest face that Zack had ever made. "The thought of you and Cloud sickens me to the point that I can't even look at you."

I must've had a dumbstruck look on my face. The face Zack was making was heart wrenching. "I'm so sorry Zack." I apologized one last time as I left the church. Tears were stinging my eyes as I ran back to the upper plate. I felt like I was finally moving on, I'd done exactly what I was supposed to do. I'd done nothing wrong here. My feet made it's way back to the alleyway on LOVELESS Ave. and there Cloud was sitting down on the bench looking up at the sky. I hiccupped as tears rolled down my face wondering if anything could be more beautiful. He must've heard me, because he turned towards me with a surprised look on his face, and when he saw me crying he ran over to me and hugged me.

"Sorry, I'm such an idiot. I should've never let you go, I shouldn't have told you to go!" Cloud apologized as he held me tightly.

"No, it's not your fault. I should say sorry for yelling at you! It's just that I don't need Zack supporting me! I want you to be with me Cloud, not Zack!" I sobbed. "I love you, not Zack!"

Cloud seemed shocked for a moment, then he laughed. "I'm so happy. I won't try and be Zack anymore."

I smiled and cried at the same time.

This was definitely the best way of moving on.


	20. Chapter 20: Secrets Found Out

Chapter 19: Secrets Found Out

I woke up with Cloud's arms wrapped around me and sunlight slowly pitching in the window. We were face to face and I laughed at his childish sleeping face. It'd been a week since I'd seen him because of the missions he'd been getting ever since he was promoted to first class, and month since we'd told each other our feelings in the alleyway of LOVELESS Ave. He must've climbed in to my bed when he got back from the mission at night. At first I had planned on waiting for him, but I fell asleep. "Hey Cloud," I whispered pinching his nose. "Wake up."

He made an unattractive snorting noise has I cut off his source of air and I laughed. He slowly opened his tired eyes and looked at me, "no." He replied stubbornly. Then he hugged me even tighter and said. "You go back to sleep. I'm warm here."

Cloud must've been exhausted from his mission, but I couldn't go back to sleep so I just stayed there in bed with him curling in to his chest. He really was warm. "Hey Cloud?" I asked.

"Yeah?" He mumbled back to me with his eyes still shut.

"You don't have any work to do today, right?" I wondered.

"Nope." He responded half yawning.

"Let's just go out today. Spend some time together, you know? It's not often we have nothing to do." I saw a smile creep on to Cloud's face as he heard my suggestion, and he nodded.

"After I wake up though," a smile was still plastered to his face as he went back to sleep.

Cloud held my hand as we walked around the sectors after grabbing lunch together. He still looked a little embarrassed when we held hands, but that was just Cloud being Cloud, and no one else. "You used to live in the slums right?" Cloud asked me as we passed by the entrance.

"Yeah, up until I was 12 years old."

"So you're a slum girl," he smirked.

"So you're a backwater country bumpkin," I retorted.

"Ah, you got me." He sighed. "It's nice, isn't it. Spending a day without the fighting."

I nodded. It really did feel good, and I felt normal for once. Walking around the streets without a heavy sword pinned to my back and holding hands with Cloud. Something inside of me told me that this was how things were supposed to me. _This_ was normal. Being stared at wherever you went for keeping a 40lbs sword on your back and wearing a SOLDIER uniform, _that_ was the definition of not normal. It almost felt weird walking down the streets and not having everyone's eyes following you, and I started to think that maybe my definition of normal was different than everyone else's. "Hey, let's play a game, Cloud." I suggested.

He looked at me with a surprised look on his face. "What game."

"It's sort of like an icebreaker. I ask you a question, you answer. You ask me a question, I answer. And you get three passes if you don't want to answer, after those three you have to answer everything. It's simple." I explained.

Cloud laughed nervously. "Are we really going to do this?"

"Yup," I replied. "I'll start. What did you think of me when you first met me?"

"When you were a boy?" Cloud asked surprised. "I thought you were a good _guy, _and that we'd be good friends."

I laughed at his response, "if only you knew."

"Yeah," Cloud scratched the back of his head. "My turn I guess… then what about you? What did you think of _me _when we first met?"

"I thought you were a good and attractive guy who had big dreams." I answered truthfully. "Why did you leave Nibelheim?"

"Because I wanted to be in SOLDIER. What did my mom say to you about me when you met her in Nibelheim?"

"Pass," I blushed.

Cloud's jaw dropped and he blushed with me while went in to a panic. "Was it really that bad! No! You can't pass on that one, you have to tell me!"

"Sorry, rules are rules," I told him trying to get my face back to it's original color. "Who was your first love?"

"You're kidding me," Cloud sighed. "If we're going to play like that then, Pass."

"Horrible! Have you no pride!" I whined. "I want to know!

"I also want to know!" Cloud laughed. "You're not the only one who wants to know something."

"At least a little info here!" I begged.

"Well it wasn't you," he shrugged without holding back.

"Nice to know," I replied sarcastically. "What a hint, you really narrowed it down."

"Never said I was going to give it away." Cloud patted my head and smiled. "It's my turn then. How many people have you liked before me?"

"Two, and I'm only telling you because I'm a good person." I frowned. "Who's the scariest person you've ever met?"

Immediately Cloud's face went blank and he stopped walking. It was like the thought of that person just froze him. "S-Sephiroth." He whispered.

Suddenly I realized that I shouldn't have asked that question. I should've known that answer already. All the things that Sephiroth did to Nibelheim, of course Cloud feared him the most, he hated him the most too. Then the thought of Zack's words came back to me. That while they experimented on Cloud they implanted Sephiroth's cells in to him. I shivered at the thought… did Cloud even know?

"Hey," Cloud held my hand tighter. "Don't worry about me too much. I'm fine. Sephiroth is dead, he's gone. I don't have to worry about him anymore so you don't have to worry about me." I looked at him nervously, wondering if he knew what was inside of him. That his greatest fear was inside of him now. I had to tell him if he didn't know, I was already keeping a from him about Zack. I didn't want to have any more secrets between us.

"Cloud-" I began to try and tell him but his attention was turned elsewhere.

"Wow! Felicis, they're selling flowers!" Cloud said amazed. "There are some in Nibelheim, but overall flowers are pretty rare, aren't they?"

My eyes widened when I heard the word flowers. The only place that I knew of with flowers was… "Aerith, Zack…" I whispered looking in the direction that Cloud was looking and there they were with the small flower wagon Zack had built for her. Aerith was turned around, talking to Zack so I knew she couldn't see us, but Zack could see Cloud and I completely. Cloud too… he could also see Zack… _clearly. _"No," I backed away and I looked at Cloud and Zack. They both just stared at each other expressionless.

Then Cloud looked at me. "Felicis-" he began but I grabbed his arm and ran as quickly as I could. Everything was over, Cloud knew I'd been lying to him. Cloud knew that Zack was alive. Everything was over, he would hate me. They were best friends after all. People weren't supposed to just tell someone that their best friend was dead, no matter what. Somehow after a long time of running we ended up at the park in the slums. Finally Cloud stopped me and tugged me towards him. "Felicis-" he began again.

"I'm sorry!" I blurted out. "I'm sorry, I just didn't want to… I thought that it was for the best. Please don't hate me Cloud, I never meant to hurt you." Tears began to stream down my face, completely aware that no matter how much I tried to justify what I had done he was going to leave me.

Cloud dropped my hand and suddenly I felt like there was some sort of huge gap around us. It was over, this was his way of showing that it was over. He was too nice to say anything mean to me, it was just done. All of a sudden he took me by the shoulders and spun me around so that we were face to face. "Wait, Felicis… I'm not getting any of this! Why are you crying? Everything was fine just a moment ago and then you just grabbed me and started running all of a sudden, and now you're crying."

I looked at him wide eyed. "Zack, you saw Zack didn't you?" It was impossible, he had to have seen him. They were only standing a little ways away from each other, and they were looking straight at each other.

"Zack? Who's Zack? I don't know who you're talking about!" Cloud looked even more confused than before.

I backed away from him trying my best to keep my jaw from dropping. "That's a lie, right Cloud?" I laughed nervously. "Zack, you know Zack. Black spiky hair, mako blue eyes, cocky? Never takes anything seriously?"

"The guy at the flower cart with the black spiky hair? Did he do something to you Felicis? What did he do to make you cry! I'll make him pay! Wait was he the guy in that letter you got a month ago!" Cloud began to get visibly angry.

"No! He didn't do anything to me Cloud! He's your best friend!" I cried.

"Are you feeling okay Felicis? I've never met that guy in my life, he's definitely not my best friend." He felt my forehead to see if I had a fever.

"No! That's not true! Remember! In Modeoheim, Zack introduced us!" I told him.

"No, in Modeoheim we were both second class SOLDIERS that hadn't met before. You were still pretending to be a boy, but you introduced yourself to me." Cloud explained from his false memory.

"But the Nibelheim mission with Zack and Sephiroth!" I protested.

"Felicis! Sephiroth and I went on that mission together! We were friends and he started acting weirdly during the mission. He betrayed me during the mission and he killed everyone! I killed him in an attempt to stop him and was fatally wounded. I was experimented on for four years after that, but I broke out even though I was weak. Then I passed out on my way back to Midgar and you saved me. Then we became roommates. That's everything that happened," worry washed over his face.

"But-" I tried to say, but then I realized that it was useless. I laughed quietly and mustered up everything I had to create a smile. "Y-yeah, you're right. That's what happened. I don't think I'm feeling too well right now Cloud, do you think that we could go back to Shinra?"

"Yeah, let's go back and get you rested up." Cloud held my hand and walked back with me. It was silent on the way back so in an attempt to break it he laughed. "That game. It was your turn."

So much was running through my mind that I didn't know what to ask him. There was only one thing that I wanted to know for sure. "Do you really not know who Zack Fair is?"

Cloud sighed and nodded. "I promise Felicis. I've never met him in my life, okay? Let's just get you back.

Even with that answer I couldn't accept it though. There had to be something wrong, and I wanted to find out what. How could Cloud ever forget Zack?

* * *

><p>hope you liked the chapter!<p>

sorry for not updating a lot lately. it's just that highschool is cramming me to the brim with work! i'll try and update any time i get!

- ExorcistGirl11


	21. Chapter 21: For The Best

Chapter 20: For The Best

Slowly and painfully time passed by. Cloud's memory was still off and I had been studying as much as I could about it. I needed to know about the Sephiroth cells experiment. Something inside of me told me that the reason he didn't remember Zack was my fault. When Cloud first returned from the Nibelheim mission that he'd been sent on four years before, he was determined to live for Zack to the point where he started to become him. And now, he couldn't even remember who Zack was in the first place. I was sitting at a desk on the SOLDIER floor of the Shinra building with books piled high next to me. I must've looked like a cram student with all of my hard work and concentration. Finally, I gave in after finding nothing for weeks. "Nobody's written anything about that experiment." I sighed putting my head down on the desk.

"About what?" Cloud suddenly approached me from behind. "You look like you're working really hard on something. I'm just curious on what it is." He smiled.

"It's nothing really," I said defensively and pushed the book I was reading away from me.

"Suspicious, Felicis. Are you really hiding something from me?" Cloud looked surprised, then a smirk rose on the corner of his mouth. "Maybe you need a break." All of a sudden I felt him tickling me.

"No!" I cried out in protest, half laughing and half screaming. I fell off of the chair and on to his chest, knocking us both to the ground. Immediately he grabbed me again, and pulled me on to his lap.

"No more studying for you." He said resting his head on top of mine. "I miss you already… ditching me for books."

"You're such a big baby," I scolded while trying to suppress a smile. "Fine, I'll ditch the books for now."

"How about forever," Cloud laughed.

"I don't think so," I replied turning around on his lap and patting his head with a smile. Then something popped in to my head. "Hey, Cloud. Do your remember that day when I told you to only be yourself?"

"Yeah, that was the day that we confessed to each other, right?" He blushed. "I don't really remember why you said it though. I just feel like it was really important, do you remember?"

"N-no, I don't really remember either." I stammered facing another failure in hoping that he would remember something about Zack. "Just forget about it."

"Sometimes you get really weird, you know? Ever since we ran in to that black haired guy. Are you sure he didn't do anything to you?" Cloud asked worriedly.

"No, he didn't do anything to me. It's nothing, just forget about it okay, Cloud?" I told him. "It's just that I wasn't feeling well that day. Right now… I'm probably just tired from all of this studying I've been doing." I stood up and began to gather up my books. "I'm just going to go back to the room and sleep."

Cloud followed me back to our room, walking quite a distance behind me. It was completely silent. Finally, he snapped. He grabbed my hand and spun me around with an angry look on his face. "I don't understand what the hell is going on, and I'm sick of this!" My jaw almost dropped. I'd never seen Cloud this angry before. "I'm just trying to figure you out these days, and I feel like all you're doing is pushing me away. It's pissing me off. This thing between us is never going to work if I'm the only one trying to make it work!" He cried. "Think about it and stop pushing me away!"

I quickly grabbed on to his shirt and pulled him to me, then I buried my face in his chest. "I'm sorry, Cloud." I said. "I'm not trying to push you away. Things have just been a little weird for me lately, but you don't have to worry about it because it's not that big of a deal. I didn't mean to push you away."

Cloud wrapped his arms around me. "I wish you would tell me what's wrong." He sighed. "But I won't ask for too much."

"Thank you Cloud." I replied. This was for the best. In the end, I really didn't want him to remember Zack at all. If he happened to remember Zack then he would know that I had lied to him. What would happen to us then? There was only one answer… he would definitely never speak to me again, all of my lies had completely reached the brim of the cup and I felt like any more lies would destroy us. Definitely, this last lie was for the best. This last lie was for the sake of keeping us together.

I'd managed to sneak away from Cloud for a little while and made my way down to the slums. I wasn't done figuring out what happened to Cloud yet, even if I didn't want him to ever remember I wanted to know what happened. This lead me to my last option, I had to talk to the one who had helped him escape and had read all of the experimental documents, Zack. As much as I wanted to avoid him at all costs after the night in the church this was for Cloud, and I felt like it had to be done. When I got to the church I peeked inside to see that he and Aerith were filling the wagon with flowers to sell. Somehow I had to talk to him without Aerith noticing me. Quickly, I flipped open my phone and sent him a message telling him to come outside. Almost immediately after the message was sent he flipped open the phone and read the message, then he put his phone back in his pocket. "I haven't seen you use that in a while," Aerith looked at him surprised.

"It wasn't important. Just some old SOLDIER stuff that still gets sent to my phone. It doesn't matter anymore." Then he went right back on with his business.

Realizing that he was still probably mad at me I figured that I had to get his attention a different way. I picked up a small rock from the ground and threw it towards him, hitting him square on the back. Quickly he turned around and saw me waving for him to come outside. He let out a big sigh.

"Aerith, some bratty little kid just threw a rock at me. I'm going to go see who it is," Zack explained as he began walking towards the exit.

"Don't scold them too bad Zack. I'm sure they don't mean any harm." Aerith told him.

"Don't worry, I know that," he smiled at her. When he walked out of the door he looked at me with a frown. "What do you want, Felicis?"

"Follow me, I want to go somewhere else and talk," I said pointing at Aerith who was still tending to her flowers. "Let's go to the park." He just sighed, nodded, and followed me.

"What do you want from me?" He sighed with his arms crossed.

"It's about Cloud," I began.

"And this is why I didn't want to talk to you. It's always about Cloud now." Zack began to walk away from me, but I quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back in protest. He stared at me with wide eyes and I quickly released his arm.

"Sorry," I apologized. "I didn't mean to-"

"What, now that you're with Cloud you can't even touch me anymore? Seems like he's got quite the strong grip on you there." Zack stared at me coldly.

"Don't talk about him like that. He's your best friend." I scolded.

"Yeah, you're right. He's my best friend. That's why it sort of sucks for me that he and you are together." He said.

"You didn't think that it sucked for me when you were in love with my big sister while I liked you? Yeah, that sucked for me too." I snapped. "I didn't come here to argue about trivial matters like that though."

"Yeah, you came to talk about Cloud," Zack said in a thick taunting tone.

"Listen to me!" I hissed. "There's something wrong with Cloud's memory and I don't know why. It's like he thinks that he's you and that he's always been you."

"I could see him trying to be me. It was a start when he took you away." Zack shrugged.

"I'm being serious here Zack! He does not remember who you are at all! Now are you going to help me or not!" I was beginning to lose my patience with him now.

He sighed and scratched the back of his head, knowing that I was about to blow any minute now. "Fine, what do you want to know?"

"Some information on the documents that you read about the experiment that was done on Cloud." I responded feeling a sense of relief that he was finally cooperating with me.

"Well, you or someone else must've said something to him while his body was still adapting to the cell change. He made a decision, and you tried to alter it somehow… or at least I think that's how it was." Zack tried recalling the documents that he'd read.

"Cloud made up his mind, that he was going to live for you because I told him that you were dead… to protect you. Magically after that he started talking and acting like you, almost like he was your clone or something. I became fed up with him being someone that he wasn't; so I told him to forget about trying to be you because he was Cloud, not Zack. After that he magically became himself again, but then he forgot all about you." Then it finally hit me. Why had I not thought the timing of everything through? I was right, I was the cause of Cloud's memory loss.

"If that's what happened, then while Cloud was trying to please you by becoming himself again he must've lost his memory of me in the process. Since his cells were already weak the only thing that was keeping him from forgetting someone like me, who was dead to him, was to become him. Your request to be himself stopped him from acting like me and initially caused him to forget about me." Zack explained.

"No way," I laughed without humor and covered my face with my hands. "Something so unreal is happening… I really was the reason he lost all of his memories."

"Hey, Felicis. It's not really your fault. It's something that just happened. If it's anybody's fault it's Hojo's for experimenting on him in the first place." Zack attempted to cheer me up.

"No, it's definitely my fault." I shook my head. "How could I cause someone to forget their own best friend? It's horrible."

Suddenly I felt Zack's arms wrap around me. "It's not a big deal Felicis. Even I'm not mourning over that thought, so why are you?"

"Because I love him," I finally said to Zack once and for all. "Because I love him so much and I can't believe that I made him lose someone so important to him."

"Ah, geez." Zack muttered holding me even tighter. "Just shut up Felicis. It's not like I didn't already know that." It felt like if he let go of me he would drown so I didn't push him away, even though I knew that I should have. "If only you were just mine… it would definitely be for the best." He whispered in my ear painfully.


	22. Chapter 22: Take Care of Yourselves

Chapter 21:Take Care of Yourselves

After my encounter with Zack I didn't speak with him anymore. I completely cut off all communication with him and it went back to the times where he was dead to everyone, including me. The only times that I'd venture down to the slums was to see Aurale and the gang when they would help me with missions, and sometimes when I just wanted to see him. There was a time that we walked right by each other in the slums while he was probably running an errand for Aerith and our eyes met, but that was it. We both ignored each other, whatever we felt before was over. Everything was a thing of the past.

Cloud made a turn for the worse. At night I would always hear him whispering Sephiroth's name in fear and anger. No matter how much studying that I had done I couldn't dig anything up to help his condition. During this time SOLDIER seemed to become aware of Cloud's state and became more suspicious. They sent him on more missions and wore him out, I had no idea what they were trying to accomplish with that, but I knew that SOLDIER wasn't a place that the both of us could stay forever.

"Dammit Sephiroth! How could you!" Cloud exclaimed in his sleep scaring me awake. I rolled over to see a distressed and sleeping Cloud on his bed. He had clenched his fists and grabbed on to the blankets so tightly that I could see his knuckles becoming white and the blood leaving his hand. This was a nightly occurrence that I was accustomed to now. Drowsily, I got up from my bed and walked over to his, sitting on the edge of it. I carefully unclenched his fists and wiped the sweat off of his forehead, then I would hold his hand until the dream was over. Cloud woke up from the dream with a gasp of breath. Immediately he shot upright and gasped for air, then he felt his chest for the wounds that he thought had been inflicted on him. He let out a sigh of relief and stared at me with his mako enhanced blue eyes. "Felicis… I'm so sor-"

"No, it's okay," I smiled at him. "It doesn't bother me at all."

He continued to look down guiltily. "Why do I keep remembering these things? I don't understand at all."

"It's okay, the dream is over. You don't have to think about it anymore." I told him holding his hand tightly. Cloud leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips, then he sat there with our foreheads pressed together. He'd admitted to me once that this made him feel safe.

"I love you, Felicis," Cloud put one of his hands on my cheek. It was covered in sweat from clenching his fists, but I leaned my head on to it. "Thank you so much, you're always here for me."

"I'll always be here for you, I promise." Then I kissed him on his forehead. Cloud felt safe with me, he felt stronger, and he felt like he could go on as long as I was with him. I loved him and I protected him, that was the reason that I would always stay with him. Cloud lifted a corner of his blanket, inviting me in to his bed and I crawled in next to him. He hugged me and we would fall asleep again. After that, his dreams were always less vivid but if he woke up I was always there next to him to take care of him.

Cloud and I were called in to the director's office for a new mission. Director Lazard was long gone, and the man that replace him was rather stout, with a moustache and little glasses. He had an uneasy feeling grin and beady little eyes. "I'd like you to go and examine Mako Reactor 5." He told us plainly. "It's a simple mission for the two of you, just tell me how the Reactor seems, if it seems normal. Kind of like a check up."

"We get it," Cloud nodded growing impatient from his constant rambling. All he had to say was that he wanted us to go to the Reactor. "Should we leave right away?"

"Yes, that would be most appreciated." The director nodded standing up from his chair with his eerie grin. "Take care of yourselves."

"We always do director," I said as we walked away. Cloud had an air of annoyance as we left the director's office. It was obvious that he shared some kind of distaste towards him. "Let's just hurry up and get this done. Then we can go out and grab some dinner afterwards, okay?" I smiled at him, trying to cheer him up, it worked like magic. Cloud instantly looked at me with a smile and nodded.

Inside of the reactor everything seemed normal to me. All was green and glowing, and as always it looked deserted. Cloud and I quickly made it to the upper floors of the reactor where there were no more green life stream particles floating around below us. It was all just solid ground from there. "This place always looks the same to me. I don't see the point in constantly checking it," Cloud sighed heavily.

"I agree with that," I replied. "It's almost painfully boring."

"Let's just go, it's obviously fine," Cloud turned around and I began to follow him until I heard a loud gunshot. The two of us immediately whipped around, and I felt the bullet graze my shoulder, sending me stumbling backwards. "Felicis!" Cloud cried drawing the buster blade, ready to kill. I made my way back to my feet and followed by drawing Fascinare.

"Who's there!" I looked around at my surroundings. This reactor had millions of different places to hide, it would be impossible to find them. I could feel blood begin to dribble down my arm and realized that I knew where they were. If the gun was fired in my direction and hit my arm then there had to be a place where the shot was fired from. I turned around and saw the broken cement behind me from the shot that was fired. Bullets traveled in straight lines. I backed up with Fascinare in one hand in with a battle cry I threw my sword in the direction the bullet was fired. Almost immediately a gunman fell to his knees from behind a block of cement.

"Wow, you got him," Cloud looked at me with fascinated eyes.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" I smirked walking over to the corpse of the gunman and removing my sword from his chest with a shake. I cringed as I felt him slide off of my blade. Killing never really was my favorite thing.

"Just what you'd expect from Felicis Gainsborough, the only female SOLDIER." I heard a male's voice. SOLDIERS filed out from behind a door and approached Cloud and I.

"Never heard that you guys were invited," I laughed without humor. "What is this, a SOLDIER party?" I began to angle my sword, ready to attack just in case.

"So you've already figured it out, haven't you?" The obvious leader of all the SOLDIERS chuckled. "You knew that this mission was absolute bullshit to begin with, didn't you?"

Cloud looked once again at me with wide eyes. "What's he talking about, Felicis?"

"He means that they knew that this reactor didn't have problems to begin with. Didn't this seem fishy to you too, Cloud? Since when have first class SOLDIERS been called to just 'check' on a reactor?"

"Bingo, Gainsborough. We're all here for both of your assassinations. It seems that the director has little use for the both of you now." The male first class SOLDIER stated.

"All of you to kill cute little us? Isn't that I little too much for 'useless' SOLDIERS? Usually five or so would suffice, but doesn't it seem to me like he's scared of the two of us? Why else would every single SOLDIER be here?" I scoffed.

"The hell if I know. All I know is that I have to complete my mission!" With those words all of the SOLDIERS came charging after Cloud and I. I grabbed his arm and dragged him along.

"Hurry!" I cried as we busted down the halls of the reactor, the SOLDIERS hot in our pursuit.

"Why do they want to kill us!" Cloud cried while we ran.

"Because of you! You're very special, very strong, and someone to be feared. So they want to kill you because they fear you! They're after me because if you die I'll kill them all! They're scared of us Cloud!" I tried to explain without giving much detail.

"I don't understand, Felicis!" Cloud replied.

"You don't have to! Not yet!" I shouted back. Still in my mind I was thinking that I didn't want to lose him. No matter what I didn't want to lose Cloud, and if he found out about the Sephiroth cells implanted in him, and if he found out about Zack I would surely lose him. Finally we reached a dead end and quickly turned around.

"So that's it. That's all Felicis Gainsborough and Cloud Strife can do? This is the dynamite pair? What I joke!" The man laughed in our faces. He knew full well though, that we were outnumbered and that we were being smart by running away. "Well there's nowhere to run now, so die together here."

SOLDIERS piled on to each other's blows, and when we blocked we were only pushed backwards by all of the frequent attacks. Behind us was a wide open vent, and they were pushing us towards it. They wanted us to fall to our deaths. If we weren't going to be killed by their swords they at least wanted us to be killed. I felt my feet continue to slide backwards and saw the Cloud was facing the same dilemma.

"Goodbye Gainsborough. You're a dead SOLDIER now." The leader grinned as he thrust his sword forward, cutting in to my side and causing me to stumble backwards in to the oversized air duct.

"Felicis!" Cloud cried dropping to his knees and grabbing my hand before I fell. Pain shot up my right arm, it was the same arm that had gotten clipped by the gun shot. I let out a cry of pain and Cloud was kicked in to the duct, only to barely catch himself on the edge.

"You just refuse to fall, huh Strife?" The leader scoffed taking his boot and crushing Cloud's hand with his heel. Cloud let out a howl and let go of the rim, and we both fell in to the darkness.

When I landed I was only half conscious. The smell of flowers filled my nostrils and a shocked cry echoed in my ears. "Cloud," I whispered, not feeling his hand in mine. "Where are you?"

I heard an all too familiar voice repeating one word, "blood, blood, blood, blood. There's so much blood!" Then I was embraced by a familiar scent. Yes, all I could smell were flowers.


	23. Chapter 23: The 9 Years Passed

Chapter 22: The 9 Years Passed

Muffled sounds could be heard through the ringing sound in my ears. Little by little the sounds became more audible, and I could tell that they were voices. After another amount of time I could tell that the voices were arguing. Finally, I could recognize the voices.

"How could you not tell me that she was alive! I've lived these past nine years thinking that she was dead, and suddenly it turns out that she isn't and that you've known all along!"

"I'm sorry; she was the one who didn't want me to tell you. I was just listening to what she wanted."

"So you kept that fact that my little sister was alive a secret!"

"There were other reasons…"  
>"Oh, and what's that!"<p>

"Ow," I muttered slowly slipping in to consciousness and feeling the wound that the SOLDIER had given me.

"Did she just speak?"

"I think so."

Slowly I heard footsteps approach me, and light began to slip in to my eyes. My body hurt all over, but my side specifically hurt much more. It was that damn SOLDIER'S fault.

"Felicis? Are you awake?"

"Who are you?" I asked. There was no answer, all I heard was silence. "Where am I? Cloud… Where is he?"

"He's fine; you just need to wake up."

"It hurts," I groaned holding my side.

"I know, but the pain will subside soon. I've been working on trying to heal it."

"Who are you?" I asked once more.

"Felicis, do you really not know who I am?"

"Am I supposed to know you?" I said, trying to make out the face on the other side of my field of vision. It was like a wall of tempered glass, I couldn't make out the face. I blinked a few more times, trying to clear my vision and slowly it began to clear. Suddenly, fear struck through me as I realized who it was before me.

"Aerith!" I cried backing away, but falling back on to the wood of the church as the pain from my wound shot through me. Then I finally realized the thick scent of flowers surrounding me. Of course it was Aerith, this was her scent and this place was cloaked in it. The sickly sweet smell made we want to choke on the air.

"Felicis-," Aerith began, reaching her hand towards me, but I dodged it.

"Get away from me!" I demanded, wide eyed.

"What have I done to anger you, Felicis! Why have you not come to see me all of these years!" Aerith cried, tears streaming down her face. A part of me felt sick with myself for avoiding her when she had wanted to see me all of this time. I felt sorry for her for having a horrible sister like me. Aerith deserved better.

"Just stay away from me!" I cried back at her. Truthfully I didn't even know why I hated her now. This had all begun with my jealousy towards her, because she had taken Zack from me. I thought that he would be mine and suddenly she had reappeared in to the picture and taken him from me. Aerith, finally getting the hint backed away and stopped trying to ask me questions that I didn't understand myself. "Where's Cloud?" I asked looking around, but not seeing him.

"He went out to tell your friends where you are, he should be back soon," Aerith told me. Her voice was upset and shaky, like she was trying to choke back the tears she had already spilt.

"Don't be mad at Zack for keeping my secret," I told her. "I was the one who told him not to tell you. He isn't to blame for any of this, okay?" Aerith nodded, almost like she was the little sister and I was the older one. "Thank you Aerith. I probably would've died without your help. I'm grateful for that, but don't try and get all big-sister on me now. I've been completely these past nine years on my own."

Once again all she could do was nod. The room was dead silent, and only once did I make eye contact with Zack. It felt so strange to have him so close to me, almost as strange as it was to see him again after four years. Sometimes it was like he was never there to begin with, even though I made sure that that would be so. Zack had already disappeared from Cloud's memories, and I had memories of him that I didn't want to lose. Even though I was no longer in love with him Zack was important to me. He would always be important to me.

In time, Cloud came back and when he saw me alive and actually sitting up he ran in to the room, and softly embraced me, knowing that if he hugged me any harder my wound would begin to hurt. "You had me really worried there," he admitted, breathing a sigh of relief. "I almost thought I'd lost you."

"It's okay, I'm right here. It'll take a lot more than that to kill me," I laughed.

"Yeah, thank goodness you're right," Cloud laughed back. Then Cloud broke our embrace and focused on Aerith and Zack. "Thank you for taking care of her, but her friends suggested that I move her to their place. Come and visit her anytime you want." He gave his oblivious thanks freely and began to help me up.

"Are you sure you want to move her yet? Her wound still isn't completely healed and-,"

Cloud interrupted Aerith, "I think that it would be best to move her. I think that it's what she wants too, Aerith. Don't wear yourself out."

That was when I realized that Cloud had known who she was this whole time. In fact he was not oblivious at all. He'd known all along that she was my sister. Cloud had a connection to Aerith. He believed that he was Zack so he definitely had a connection to Aerith. He worried about her and wanted to protect her just like Zack. I figured that on their journey back to Midgar Zack had told Cloud many things about Aerith, altering Cloud's thoughts to think that he had already actually met her. In his mind, he wanted to keep her safe, and the thought made me completely uncomfortable.

"Thank you too… Zack right?" Cloud nodded. "It seems that you and Felicis are close friends, thank you for taking care of her all this time."

"No problem," Zack replied uncomfortably. I could tell that he was not yet accustomed to talking to Cloud like a stranger. Finally he said, "Do you really not remember me, Cloud?"

"Am I supposed to? I don't think that I've ever met you before," Cloud thought about it, but shook his head.

"Never mind, forget I asked. It was nice meeting you, Cloud." Zack nodded.

"You too," Cloud replied leading me out of the old church. "And you," he said seriously. "We have a lot to discuss."

"Yeah, when we get to Aurale's house we can talk about everything," I replied.

That night while I laid in bed thinking about everything that happened that day Cloud entered my room and sat down at my bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"As good as a stabbed person can feel," I joked.

Cloud laughed, "I guess so."

"Can I ask you a selfish favor?" I asked looking up at the ceiling.

"What is it?"

"Can you not meet up with Aerith? I don't really want you two seeing each other," I told him, admitting my fear of him being taken from me.

Cloud let out a deep sigh and had to think about it before he answered yes. "It's just that, I feel like I should be protecting her for some reason, like there's this weird connection between us. I don't really understand it, that's why I guess it'll be hard for me not to meet with her." Of course I'd known all of this already. That was why I was asking my selfish request in the first place. "I'm also going to ask you a selfish request though." Cloud informed me.

"What is it?"

"I don't really want you meeting up with that Zack guy often. I feel like you two have this strange bond together, and it makes me uncomfortable. I trust you, but I guess that it's still nerve wracking to see you two together." Cloud sighed.

Just like Cloud did, I had to think about it before finally agreeing. "It's just that the both of us have always been really close. We have a lot of history together and I don't really want to lose him is all," I told Cloud, phrasing it the way he'd phrased his explanation on purpose.

"Wow, you really just hurt me there. Are you trying to make me feel like you did when I explained how I felt about Aerith?" Cloud laughed in a choked sounding sort of way.

"Sorry, it's true. Maybe I shouldn't have done that," I apologized.

"At least I didn't tell you that I have history with Aerith, which I don't, but saying that you have history with that guy really hurts." Cloud sighed running his hand through his perfect blonde hair.

"I'm sorry," I apologized again, holding his hand.

"I think that I'm scared that you're going to leave me. I just have this really bad feeling." Cloud admitted.

"Don't trust that feeling. I'm always going to be right here, don't worry." I told him, embracing him. "I'm not leaving anytime soon."


	24. Chapter 24: A Childhood Friend

Chapter 23: A Childhood Friend

A few days after I'd regained my consciousness in Aerith's church I was able to get up and walk a short distance by myself. As the weeks passed I finally regained my ability to be independent. Within those weeks I had not seen Aerith or Zack at all. Once or twice I heard Aerith stop by the house to ask Aurale or Cloud if I was doing alright, but she had never asked to see me. That was how Aerith was after all; if someone told her no then she would obey. She wasn't as stubborn as I was. As for Zack, he hadn't even come over to check on me. Not that I wanted to see him anyways.

As for Midgar, everything had gone bad since SOLDIER knocked Cloud and I down that air vent and in to the slums. All of a sudden SOLDIER and Shinra began attacking towns outside of Midgar completely at random. The people of Midgar were stirring, not knowing if should trust Shinra any longer.

Cloud completely ignored these events and did not speak of them at all. He was always in and out of the house, sometimes buying medicine, and other times just running errands for my group of friends living there. He always enjoyed helping people out, and he didn't want to be indebted to them. At times I would have to remind him that they were basically my family, and that we didn't owe them anything by staying with them, but he still insisted on helping out. That was what I loved about Cloud, so I promised him that once I got better I would also help out with him.

"Are you really going to be okay walking around right now?" Serae asked worriedly, trailing behind Cloud and I as we were on our way out the door. "Maybe you shouldn't move around so much yet."

Rael came behind her and put his hand on her head with a sigh, "come on Serae. You worry too much. It's Felicis you're talking about after all. "She'll be fine."

"Yeah, and Varst already said that it would be okay for me to move around now," I told her reassuringly. "You should trust the doctor."

"Take care of her Cloud," Rael gave us his crooked smile. He and Cloud seemed to have gotten quite close since we began living there. Maybe it was because they looked alike, but somewhere deep inside I knew that it was because of Nibelheim. Cloud was homesick; he'd always been and always would be homesick. It took a fool not to notice that. I'd overheard them once, talking about Cloud's mother, and the sites around the backwater town. Another time I'd heard the name Tifa mentioned. Rael said that he knew her when he lived there, Cloud just nodded only saying two words to Rael after that. _She's safe. _

It took a lot to not think about the mysterious girl named Tifa. Something about the way that Cloud had said those two words: _she's safe_ made me not want to think about it though. "I'll take good care of her, don't worry," Cloud said to both Rael and Serae who still showed signs of worry.

"Okay," Serae nodded nervously as Cloud and I walked out the door.

"So what errands are we supposed to run?" I asked Cloud when we got out on to the streets of the slums.

"None today, today is for you and I. You've been bedridden for so long I felt like we needed to go out somewhere together." He smiled in a way that made my heart melt.

"Thank you," I smiled back at him, holding his hand.

Since it had been weeks since SOLDIER had attacked us and they thought that we were dead Cloud and I figured that traveling up on to the plate wouldn't be such a bad idea. It would be better than wandering aimlessly around the slums with nothing to do. We had lunch together and walked around together through shops, laughing at the useless and stupid things that we would find. At one point we caused such a commotion in one shop that we were asked to leave, which of course we had a laugh about when we exited the shop. Somehow, knowing that I wasn't a part of SOLDIER anymore made me feel freer. No one would stare at me as I walked down the streets any longer, in fact no one would look at me at all. This had happened another time when I was with Cloud. It was the day that we wandered around the sectors, just like what we were doing now. It was also the day that I found out Cloud had no memories of Zack. All I could think was that once again Cloud made me feel normal. He'd done it before, and he'd done it again. This was something that Zack had never done for me, and could never do for me. When I was in love with Zack I still didn't feel normal, but with Cloud it was like I'd been normal all of my life. It was so much easier with Cloud; with Zack it took work.

Finally we found a bench and just stared at the setting sun, like fire streaking through the sky. "What would you think if I became a mercenary?" Cloud asked unexpectedly as the sun slowly began to disappear behind the horizon. "Would you be okay with that?"

The question took me by surprise. It was in that moment that I realized my normal and Cloud's normal were two completely separate things. I'd grown up abnormal from the very start, and I wanted my normal to be just an average person. Cloud on the other hand had grown up living a completely normal life, but he wanted his normal to be action filled. He wasn't the kind of person to just sit back and relax like I was. He always had to be doing something, and these past weeks of doing nothing had gotten him thinking again. In SOLDIER he was already living his 'normal' life. Now he was searching for a new one, and even though a part of me wanted to hold him back and force him to just relax with me I knew that I couldn't. "You can do whatever you want Cloud. Don't let me hold you back," I told him.

"Yeah," he nodded, then he laughed and looked at me. "Then I could make some money too. I'll make a lot."

"Where did this greedy Cloud come from!" I joked as I punched him on the arm with a grin. "Possessed by the demon of greed?"

"I'm just saying, mercenaries get paid whatever price they ask for, and the kind of people that hire mercenaries are desperate. They'll pay up. It sounds pretty nice to me," Cloud told me. "Maybe I could pay back Rael and the group a bit."

"That would be a nice thing to do. If you make that much money maybe you could move all of us out of the slums and up on to the plate," I suggested.

"Yeah," he replied. I could tell that he was thinking really hard about the new occupation that he'd decided on. "I'm sure Rael and the other would like it."

The continuous mention of Rael reminded me of the conversation that the two of them had about the mystery girl, Tifa. Curiousity filled me again, "hey Cloud…" I began.

He just looked at me with a smile, "what is it?" Seeing his face so happy just made me realize that I was just being jealous and paranoid without even taking in to consideration about how he felt about me. I knew that he loved me, I would know that the most out of anyone so I didn't have a need to be paranoid.

"It's nothing," I told him.

"You always do that," Cloud sighed messing up my hair jokingly. "You always cut yourself off before you tell me something. It really makes me curious about what goes through that head of yours."

"You don't need to worry about it," I laughed trying to make him stop before my hair turned in to a rat's nest. "If I don't say it then there's nothing to worry about."

"Okay, I'm believing you now. Don't you make me worry," Cloud warned standing up after the sun finally disappeared. "We should probably start heading back."

The two of us made our way back to the slums where the nine of my friends were waiting for us. All was well until suddenly a huge explosion rang out through the sector. The sector was immediately thrown in to a panic: people ran around screaming, the ground shook violently, and worst of all SOLDIER came out, ready for battle. "Cloud, we have to avoid them!" I cried in a whisper as we hid behind a wall in an alleyway. Cloud cursed and pondered over what to do. We were in a horrible situation, if SOLDIER found out that we were still alive then they would never stop hunting us. SOLDIERS that abandoned the organization were never left alive, that's why we would always get the messages about SOLDIERS that had died in battle. It wasn't that they were really dead, it's that they had fled and as far as Shinra could see, with the amount of troops that they were sending at them there was no way that they would come back alive anyways. I knew that full well, it happened with Zack, and it happened to Cloud and I. "We have to enter one of the buildings around here," I told Cloud, but we could both see that almost all of the stores and restaurants had begun to close and lock their doors amongst the chaos.

Finally, Cloud managed to spot a building that had not locked up yet and instantly we barreled over to the door, slammed it open, and locked ourselves in. We hadn't even looked to see where we had entered. "We're safe," Cloud sighed with relief.

"Yeah, but that's only for now," I told him. "We're going to have to wait for the sector to calm down before we can make it back to the slums."

"You're right, everyone's going to kill me for bringing you back late," Cloud groaned. "Hopefully they don't come out looking."

"They won't I laughed, I'm not a little kid anymore. I'm 21 and fully capable of taking care of myself." I said.

"21 with the mind of a child," Cloud laughed.

"Shut up," I punched him on the arm as I looked around to see where we had ended up. It seemed that we'd ended up in some kind of bar. I'd never come here before so it must've been new, "I wonder where this place is." Seeing as the bar looked a little rickety and unwelcoming it wasn't getting much funding and wasn't very popular.

"Hey, is anyone in here?" Cloud called out, walking around the empty bar. It must've been the only building that people hadn't fled to because we were the only ones that were in there as far as we could see.

"I think that it's empty… that's weird." I wondered. Suddenly the door behind the bartender's counter opened and I flinched out of surprise. "Hello? Who's there?"

A girl with long black hair, tied at the very end walked out from the door. Cloud watched her wide eyed as she approached us from across the counter. She was wearing a white tank top that exposed her midriff, and suspenders that hooked to a short leather miniskirt. Her big brown eyes grew even bigger at that moment and she ran to the edge of the counter, slamming her gloved hands on to the wood. "Cloud!"

Immediately I was thrown in to confusion. I had never met this girl before, but the way that she exclaimed his name seemed like they knew each other quite well. "Who…?" Before I could even react the black haired girl was flying over the counter and throwing herself at Cloud. He quickly caught her in shock, and stumbled backwards, stuck in her embrace. "Tifa!" He cried in a surprised tone that even I couldn't muster up in that moment. "What are you-!"

"Where the hell have you been! I looked everywhere for you!" Tifa exclaimed, backing up to get a good look at his face and then going back in for another hug. "It's been so long, Cloud," she said this time in a much softer voice.

Tifa, the name spun in my head like I was on a roller coaster ride and I wanted off. This was the girl that Rael and Cloud talked so highly about as they spoke of Nibelheim? This girl was Cloud's childhood friend, they'd grown up together. She'd known him better than I knew him. Everything that I'd thought about up until now about not getting jealous because I knew Cloud loved me suddenly went out the door. I was jealous, completely jealous of the girl that was hanging off of Cloud like she was the one who he was in love with.

"Who're you?" Tifa asked, breaking my thoughts and still hanging off of Cloud like a leech.

"That's Felicis," Cloud told her, lifting her up and setting her down in front of him. Then he moved to my side, making me feel a sense of superiority over her. "She's my girlfriend."

Tifa's brown eyes widened again with a sort of disbelief that set a ticking time bomb in my chest. "Oh, I see." She said giving me a downward stare, almost like she was inspecting me. The events that night gave me an uncomfortable feeling, like a storm was approaching.

The next day Cloud became a mercenary, and an infamous vigilante group arose from the cracks of Midgar. This group swore to bring down Shinra and all of the mako reactors to save the planet. Their theory was that the planet was slowly dying due to the actions of Shinra and their reactors. They called themselves AVALANCHE…

* * *

><p>SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! I have been so busy dealing with high school crap, and haven't been able to update recently. I will continue trying my best to get the chapters in ASAP!<p>

As for this chapter, Tifa is here and I must say that I am quite excited. I love Tifa with everything I am:) And it's great that my character seems to be stirring up the plot already.

Well, readers. As of now we have broken out of the Crisis Core world and in to the Final Fantasy VII world, accept for the obvious fact that Zack Fair will be in it... In truth i have never really played the original Final Fantasy VII game (hides under a rock and cries "don't kill me!") so I will be learning what i can about the game from the final fantasy wiki and walkthroughs on YouTube. For those that have played the original FFVII game: good for you! I am jealous, but if i do something wrong please don't judge me for it. You could tell me and i will try my best to fix it!

Thanks!

-ExorcistGirl11


	25. Chapter 25: Running Into Promises

Chapter 24: Running Into a Promise

Cloud had become a full-fledged mercenary within the month that he had told me he wanted to do it. Sometimes I would hear his clients talk about him, calling him a "selfish and greedy bastard" or a "self-serving pain in the ass" but never once did I hear that he didn't get the job done. Because Cloud any job that he could get he was constantly out of the house, sometimes not coming back for days, and once he got back he would be gone by the end of that week, or sooner. Sometimes I debated on whether or not I wanted to go with him, but he said that he'd rather me stay at home.

Once I'd asked him about why people would say those rude comments about him because he seemed completely the same to me when he came home. He just smiled at me like he always did and replied, "If I'm nice to them then they'll think I can't get the job done. Mercenaries aren't really supposed to come off as nice people." After hearing that I dropped the subject and began ignoring the comments of the clients, knowing that it was all just a façade that Cloud had created.

Cloud and Tifa seemed to be in contact more often than not, which I couldn't complain about since they were childhood friend. They hadn't seen each other in years so I had no right to ask him to stop seeing her, though I did feel a little worried about them. It almost felt like he saw her more than he saw me and it was a little unnerving.

I continued to run errands at the little house in the slums, sometimes joined by Aurale or anyone who felt like they needed to get out of the house. But with Rael came Serae, and with Varst came Merule, etc. Somehow it felt like each of them had slowly begun to pair up with each other. I didn't have a problem with any of them falling in love, in fact I had a bit of that in my lifetime as well, but it felt like when they paired up they would slowly start drifting away from the others in the group.

Today was just like any other day; I woke up and headed out to run some errands for my friends, who had really become more like family to me. Cloud was right, the least I could do for them was run errands. I went to the shops in the slums and bought groceries, reading off the list of things that they needed for that day. Feeding a group of ten people wasn't an easy task after all especially with not a lot of money and five males that liked to eat as much as they could. The money that Cloud brought in constantly helped a lot, but it was still not enough for that many people. "Maybe I should get a job," I murmured to myself, staring at the long list of groceries. "It would help a bit." I began to wish that I still had the money I'd earned from SOLDIER to help pay for costs, but I'd left it in my SOLDIER room, thinking that I wouldn't need it for a mission.

Suddenly I bumped in to a man because I hadn't been paying attention to where I was walking. I had been reading the list and forgot to look forward. "Sorry," I apologized, then immediately realized that he could pick-pocket me if I didn't get away. On instinct I leapt backwards and checked my pockets. My wallet was still intact so I looked up to see who I had bumped in to. Zack stood in front of me on the verge of tears from holding in his laughter. "Zack!" I cried, "I thought that you…"

"You thought that I was going to pick-pocket you?" He scoffed, wiping away tears after finally keeping his laughter down to a minimum. "It seems that you've gotten used to living in the slums easily."

"You do remember that I was born in these slums, right?" I told him, folding my arms. "I know this place better than anybody."

"I just thought you might've forgotten after living on the plate for so long," he shrugged. "You never did come off as the kind of person who came from the slums. You always kind of seemed like a girl that was born and raised on the plate."

"Girls born and raised on the plate don't aspire to join SOLDIER," I informed him. "They want to be business women, or reporters."

"You never know," he shrugged again. "There's always at least one, right?"

Then it hit me, this was the first normal conversation that I'd shared with Zack in months. Nothing compared to the four years he'd spent missing, but it still surprised me. It was obvious that we weren't close anymore, but I still treasured the times we'd spent as friends even though they were all in the past. "Yeah," I finally replied after pondering the thought for a little while. "So where have you been living all of this time?" I asked, realizing that I had never found out where he lived.

"With Aerith and her family, your family too," he said with a smile. "They're nice people; you should pay them a visit sometime."

"Yeah, maybe I will some other day. I have groceries to buy right now, so my hands are a little full." I laughed, holding up the long list that I had been given. "There are lots of people where I live so we eat a lot."

"I'll help out," Zack generously volunteered. "It'll be easier to hold all of those groceries with another pair of hands there. What do you say?"

I thought about it for a moment, and then smiled. "Yeah, I would like that."

Zack and I entered the slum markets and began to find the things on the list. Zack called it a scavenger hunt so that it would seem a little more entertaining, and so I played along. By the time we found as many of the items as we could we were both laughing like a pair of idiots, so much that we were shot many questionable looks by the other shoppers in the market. "We couldn't find the stupid cabbage!" I complained. "Of course the cabbage would be the only thing we wouldn't be able to find!"

"You should be thankful we couldn't find it, you hate cabbage!" Zack choked out, trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard. "But I definitely found more than you. You were like a lost puppy!"

"You're the lost puppy! Isn't that your nickname? Zack the puppy?" I crooned. "Aw, you're just a little puppy."

"I'll bite you," he threatened as we walked over to the cashier to buy our items.

"That will be 2000 gil," the cashier said, handing us our items. I dug out my wallet from my pocket, but Zack had already brought his out.

"What are you doing Zack?" I asked, but he put his hand out.

"I'll pay, don't worry."

"But-!" I protested, but he stopped me again.

"It's fine, Felicis." He smiled, "I have some extra cash anyways. It's nothing to sweat over." After paying he handed me half of the grocery bags and held the other half himself, then we began to head back to my house. "Get a job already. I know you're running low on money."

"Thank you." I told him. "You have a job?"

"You know, I do little things around here that'll earn me some money. You know, small errands, deliveries, and sometimes fighting off some monsters. As long as it earns me some money it's fine, I want to be able to pay back Elmyra for letting me stay with her and Aerith. Aerith earns some money from selling flowers too, so it's all good."

"Maybe I should do that too. It seems better than wasting my time indoors." I sighed.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. How is Cloud doing? Any luck with his memory?" Zack asked, somewhat hopefully.

I shook my head, "still nothing. I don't know if he'll ever remember at this point. He still doesn't remember that you existed at all."

Zack let out a long sigh, "I guess it can't be helped."

"Yeah, but he's a mercenary now. He doesn't come home too much anymore because of his job, but I guess it's alright. Running around suits him better anyways," I said.

"A mercenary, huh?" Zack said to himself. "That's funny."

"Why is it funny?" I asked confused.

"Because on our way back to Midgar I suggested that the two of us become mercenaries in Midgar. We wouldn't be working in Shinra anymore after all." Zack told me. "At least I know that he could still hear me when he was unconscious. Thank goodness I didn't say anything mean to him." He laughed.

"So he remembers little things that you said to him, but he doesn't remember you. Those Sephiroth cells sure are weird."

"Yeah, but as weird as Cloud has become with those Sephiroth cells in him, he's still a hero. More of a hero than I was at least. He really was the one who killed Sephiroth you know. I got knocked out by Sephiroth, but Cloud picked up my sword and just went at him. He was probably furious about his mom and Tifa."

"You know Tifa?" I asked surprised.

Zack looked back at me with his 'of course' face. "I met her when I arrived in Nibelheim. She's a pretty one that Tifa, but Cloud was scared to see her face to face for some reason so he kept his helmet on the whole time. She got hurt when she went after Sephiroth for killing her father. Cloud looked like he was going to throw the sky at Sephiroth's face when he found Tifa." Suddenly Zack realized how much he was praising Cloud and Tifa's relationship and stopped. "You know her?" He asked changing the subject.

"Yeah, I met her about a month ago. She works in a bar up on the plate. Cloud goes up there a lot to talk to her." I explained.

"Oh, I see…" Zack said trailing off. "Well don't feel discouraged or anything. It's obvious that Cloud really likes you so he wouldn't do anything with her…" He tried to pat the back of my head, but instead hit me on the back with the bag of groceries he was holding.

"Ow!" I groaned. "What the hell!"

"I am so sorry, I meant to comfort you, but I ended up hitting you." Zack apologized, looking like he was holding back laughter again.

"What are you an idiot! You're horrible at comforting people!" I laughed, unable to rub my sore back because of the grocery bags. Then I playfully swung my bag of groceries, hitting him in the gut, "Revenge." I told him bluntly.

"I guess I deserved that…" Zack laughed arriving at the front door of my home. "Well we're here. Do you need help with bringing the groceries in?"

"Yeah, that would be helpful." I replied, thanking him. We entered the house and everyone looked somewhat surprised to see Zack inside of our home. Zack seemed to notice, but he continued to greet everyone as his usual friendly self.

"Ah, Felicis, you're back." Aurale seemed to say with an uneasy tone as she stared at Zack. She outstretched her hand towards Zack and he shook it. "You must be Zack, right? It's very nice to meet you. I'm Aurale."

"Nice to meet you Aurale," he smiled.

Then Aurale walked next to me and whispered in my ear, "maybe it's not the best time for him to be here." I could sense the worry in her voice.

"Why?" I whispered back, but then I heard my voice being called from my room and the heavy footsteps of combat boots clunking against the floor.

"Hey, Felicis, you're back," Cloud said coming in to the dining room to where Aurale, Zack, and I stood.

"Cloud!" I cried with obvious surprise. "Welcome home!"

"Ah, yeah," he said replying to me but staring at Zack instead. "Zack, right?" he pointed.

"Yeah, hey Cloud," Zack waved sensing the tension that had formed in the room suddenly by Cloud. I felt it too, and it made me feel completely uncomfortable.

"Zack helped me with my errands. I sort of bumped in to him on my way there and he offered to help." I tried to explain, suddenly remembering my promise to Cloud that I wouldn't speak with Zack anymore because it made him feel uneasy. "It was a lot of groceries to hold, and he helped a lot. He even paid for it, didn't you Zack?"

"Oh, yeah… it was no problem." Zack tried to help me out by replying.

"Oh, how nice of him, thanks Zack," Cloud said.

"No problem. I actually have to go back home. I realized that I promised Aerith that I would help her with a new wagon for her flowers so I have to get on that right away." Zack lied, though I knew that it was probably only obvious to me.

"You should hurry then, thank you for the help Zack!" I called out to him as I watched him go.

"Any time!" he replied as he walked out the door.

Immediately when he left I walked over to Cloud's side a brushed some of his hair out of his eyes. "Hey, I didn't know that you were coming home today. I'm happy that you're back, I missed you."

"Yeah," Cloud replied without much emotion in his voice. I instantly knew that I was in trouble. "Can you come with me? I need to talk to you." Cloud grabbed my hand and pulled me in to our bedroom, and I looked back once begging for help from someone, but everyone just watched sympathetically as I disappeared behind the door.

When he shut the door he let go of my hand and spun around to face me. "You promised me that you wouldn't talk to him anymore. You know that it makes me uncomfortable when you guys are together."

"It was one time, I bumped in to him and he offered to help! I completely forgot, I'm sorry!" I tried to explain.

"I promised you that I wouldn't talk to Aerith because you didn't want me to and I haven't spoken to her once!" Cloud told me.

"He's a friend, we just had a friendly conversation and he helped me with carrying the bags! It was fun."

` "Oh, I'm sure you had a lot of fun didn't you? You don't think that I know that he was the one that wrote you that letter back then! The one where he said he wanted to see you, and he was obviously in love with you!" Cloud scoffed.

"It's different now! We're just friends, he's in love with my older sister! He's always been in love with my older sister! There shouldn't be a problem there! And that day I came back to you and told you that I was in love with you!" I argued.

"How would you know that he's not in love with you anymore! Just because he sells flowers with Aerith and hangs around her all the time doesn't mean he's in love with her! He wouldn't have been so generous as to help you carry your bags and even pay for you if he didn't care for you in some way! You're so stupid when it comes to these kind of things, Felicis!" Cloud shouted at me.

"Why are you being so hostile towards me!" I cried stomping my foot.

"Because I'm never here with you anymore so I don't know what you're doing whenever I'm gone! You don't think that that's at least a little unnerving for me! And then I see you coming home with Zack, how do I know that it hasn't happened before or if it's not going to happen again!" Cloud snapped.

"Then have a little more faith in me! I'm in love with you, I tell you this all the time! I don't understand why you can't trust me to even walk home with one of my friends! Go talk to Aerith, or Tifa, or any girl that you want to! I don't care, because I trust that you're not going to do anything with them! Why can't you put that same trust in me!" I finally screamed.

Cloud seemed surprised at this remark. He must've never thought about it that way, that I'd been letting him talk to anyone he wanted to without getting jealous except for Aerith who was the person who I felt took Zack from me in the first place. Immediately the yelling and screaming ceased to continue and the two of us just stared at each other. Tears began to stream down my eyes and then I crouched down on to the floor in to fetal position.

"Are we going to be okay Cloud?" I asked in the middle sobs. "Are we going to be able to continue us being together like this? Please tell me that we're going to be okay."

Cloud stared at me on the ground, and suddenly I realized that it looked like he was on the brink of tears also. He crouched on to the ground and held me tightly in his arms. "I'm sorry Felicis. Sorry, don't leave me. We're going to be okay, so don't leave me. I'll trust you more from now on, I promise. I'll come home more so we'll be fine."

"Okay," I sobbed holding him back. "We're going to be okay. No more running in to promises. I'll keep my promises from now on."

"You can talk to Zack if you want now," Cloud said burying his head in my shoulder almost like it pained him to say it. "I have to learn to trust you from now on. It'll be fine, I'll be fine, and we'll be fine."

"Okay," I replied believing him.


	26. Chapter 26: Lost and Searching

Chapter 25: Lost and Searching

When I woke up I was in bed with Cloud. He had his arm wrapped around me, sharing his warmth. A smile was on the edge of his lips, bringing one to mine. I looked up at the ceiling thinking of our argument the other day. Truthfully I thought that our relationship was going to end in the gutter, but here we were, perfectly normal again. Ever since Cloud had become a mercenary and was out working more often than not it felt like our trust had been shattered in to millions of pieces, and I was scrambling to put it back together. Part of me didn't want to scramble anymore, but majority of me did not want to lose him. I was in love with him, and I promised him that I would never leave him. That was a promise that I was determined to keep.

Cloud groaned and slowly flashed his mako blue eyes at me. "Good morning," he smiled kissing me on the forehead. There was no feeling that could match the amazing feeling of waking up and seeing the face of the one you loved. "How long have you been awake?"

"Not long," I replied.

"You should have woken me," he smirked.

"You looked so peaceful that I couldn't. Did you have a good dream? You were smiling," I asked him curiously.

"Yeah," he said getting up from the bed and picking up his work shirt. He slipped in on and began to change in to the rest of his mercenary clothes. Then he fell back on to the bed trying to put on his boots.

"About what?" I asked helping him lace up his shoes.

"Nibelheim when I was a child," he told me. "You were in it actually. I dreamed I met you in Nibelheim and none of this Shinra and SOLDIER insanity ever happened."

"That would have been nice," I smiled. "Off on another job?"

"Yeah, some organization that Tifa wanted me to help. AVALANCHE or something like that. I should be back by the end of the night, but don't wait up for me too late," he suggested making his way to the kitchen. I followed behind him in my pajama shorts and oversized t-shirt. He grabbed a couple slices of bread and headed towards the door.

"Do you have to go so early?" I asked sadly.

"Sorry, they want to discuss plans with me and they want me there early. Apparently there is a lot to discuss. Tifa said that this organization could be a long term client for me so I don't want to upset them." Cloud swallowed down one of the slices of bread and started on the second piece at the door.

"You're probably going to piss them off anyways," I smirked.

"Very funny," he retorted. Then he opened the door and kissed me quickly. "I'll see you soon. I love you."

"Love you too," I said as I watched him walk out. I continued to watch him while leaning on the door frame until he disappeared behind the crowd of slum houses before me. I let out a long sigh. Every time I watched him go it made me debate on whether I wanted follow him and join his business. Even though he'd said he would be back tonight I still hated seeing him go. Rael walked up from behind me and stretched.

"Did Cloud just leave again?" He yawned.

"Yeah," I turned to face him. Then I laughed, "do you know how freaky it is to see you and Cloud one after another? Seriously how do you two look insanely similar. If I didn't know any better I would think you two were brothers, or twins!"

"We are brothers at heart," Rael shrugged, then stretched again. He slowly trudged in to the kitchen and opened the rickety fridge that Larch and Let had found and barely put back together. He grabbed the gallon sized jug of milk and lifted it to his lips. When nothing came out he brought it down to his chest and stared inside. "Ah, we're out of milk."

"I'll go get it later," I told him. "Drink water for now."

"Disgusting," he groaned.

"Don't complain," I pointed at him. "Anyways, you and Serae seem to be getting along quite well these days."

"More than well," he winked at me. "Much more."

"Ah, I don't even want to know," I sighed.

"Come on, you're basically living in a house full of couples." Rael began to count with his fingers. "There's Serae and I, Varst and Merule, Larch and Aurale, and hell even Let and Atricus seem to be pretty fond of each other. The only one who isn't coupled up is Xantus and I don't know what is running through his mind half the time. I'm pretty sure he has some girl up on the plate or something. It's not anything abnormal or anything though, I mean we're all in our twenties already, that is except for Atricus. She's almost there."

I laughed. "Maybe you've got a point there."

"Ever since you and Cloud quit SOLDIER it's been quite boring though. Maybe we should all go on an exciting mission instead of sitting around." He suggested.

"I'd rather not. I've had too many exciting missions to last a lifetime." I told him then I made my way back to my room. Soon I had my clothes on and was out to buy the milk before the rest of the house woke up. When I got back with the milk almost everyone had woken up. Aurale thanked me as she took the milk off of my hands and poured a glass for herself.

"You're always working so hard, you know?" Aurale said sloshing the milk around in her mug. "Maybe you should just take a day off and let the rest of us take care of the errands for today."

"Sure," I nodded. "Thanks."

Somehow after being told that I could take a day off I had found myself at the park in the slums. Whenever the group and I weren't at the church we would be at this park, filling up every inch of the slide and toys. That was back when we were a whole, but now our numbers had been cut in half. I was still determined to find the second half of my friends that everyone else still thought of as rivals no matter what. Among them was Zaneit, and though it had been a long time since I was in love with him and that time had passed I still cared for him as a friend. It was almost a fact that you would always care for your first love.

I sat at the top of the slide thinking of the long list of missing friends. There was Thearin and Dephnia Sephlit, Argon Thantus, Atsic Maticus, Grandet Fletcher, Melstone Katren, Frausic Van-Galheim, and finally Zaneit Roht. Each and every one of them were important to me in their own special way. I knew that the friends that I had found were not very fond of the others anymore, and I couldn't blame them. They'd once told me that I was the tether that tied the two groups together and made them friends, when they thought I'd died that tether was broken and they immediately began arguing. That would fit right in with Xantus' story about the legend of the Ancient Eve. I didn't like to think about things like that though because it meant that we weren't our own person. We were just a piece of an all-powerful being. "It's just a story," I told myself over and over again, completely wiping away the fact that Xantus could shoot orbs of light from his hands, and Atricus was emotionless and expressionless.

Heavy footsteps sounded out from behind me, and I quickly spun around to see who was sneaking up on me. "Who's there!" I cried defensively feeling my old SOLDIER instincts rise up inside of me.

"Whoa, I'm not going to attack you or anything," Zack laughed putting his hands up in the air. "You just seemed so deep in thought and I didn't want to surprise you."

"Oh, perfect job, Zack. You did exactly what you intended not to do," I sighed, calming myself down.

"Sorry about that," Zack said climbing up the slide and sitting next to me. "No errands?"

"I get a break today apparently. What about you?" I asked with a shrug.

"Same with me, and Aerith insisted that I let her sell flowers on the plate alone. She wants to start learning a little independence. I can't say that I'm not at least a little worried about her though," Zack explained scratching the back of his head. "Pretty girls alone and the men on the plate don't really mix too well."

"Pretty girls and you don't mix well. All you do is play around and ask girls on dates," I scoffed.

"Hey, I've changed these past four years too. I had a lot of time to calm down my hormones in that tank they stuffed me in," he joked.

"Idiot," I laughed pushing him down the slide. He slid all the way to the bottom and then turned around to look up at me. As always he had on his hundred watt smile, forcing a smile out of me too.

"Don't stay out here too long Felicis," Zack advised. "Pretty girls sitting alone in the park don't really mix well with some men in the slums."

"You're leaving?" I asked sounding more disappointed than I would have liked to sound.

"Yeah, I'm really starting to worry about Aerith. I'll just go up and check on her. I'm sure that she won't be too mad if I do that," he waved goodbye with a smile.

"Okay," I waved realizing that he'd only come over to greet me in the first place because I seemed distressed. Zack was worried about me. "Idiot… you don't always have to look out for me. You really haven't changed one bit." I said to myself.

Another Reactor had been blown up by the AVALANCHE organization again. Cloud didn't come back that night. I didn't expect him to return, but it was still disappointing. Sometimes his missions would take a whole week. For some special occasions it would take even longer. Aurale forced me to take a break once again, pushing my duties on to Atricus and Xantus, but even with my break I found myself busily tidying up the house. If I wasn't working then I didn't know what I would do. Living normally was completely different from living as SOLDIER like I was accustomed to. When I was a SOLDIER I was always on a mission, but normal people had so much free time on their hands. I didn't even know what to do with so much time. The cleaning lasted until sunset, and once again I found myself lying around with a couple hours left in the day for me to spend. I didn't even know what everyone else around the house did all day, after all I was usually the only one up and moving around. With nothing to do I began to count the holes in my room's ceiling, but every so often I lost count and was forced to begin again. After the first few times I restarted I gave up and found myself with nothing to do again.

All of a sudden there was a banging on the front door that shot me up from my bed. It sounded frantic, almost scared and I ran out of my room to see who was banging on the door. Quickly, I pulled open the door and Zack appeared panting and out of breath. Sweat dripped down the side of his face, and his hair was in matted clumps, like he'd run all over the slums and the plate and then ran to my house. "Zack! What's going on here!" I cried worriedly inviting him in and grabbing a towel to wipe away the sweat. He tried to explain, but he had no voice to speak because of his dry throat. It wasn't until I offered him water that he explained.

"Aerith is missing. She went off this morning and she hasn't come back yet. She should have been back home by now, even her mother is worried… your mother," he corrected himself. "I've searched everywhere for her, but I can't find her."

"Calm down. Have you searched everywhere?" I asked getting a little worried myself.

"I've searched everywhere on both the plate and the slums. I don't know where else to go." Zack sounded stressed and afraid. Worry surrounded him like a fog and seeped from his pores. I'd never seen Zack like this before. For the first time in all of the time that I'd known him he looked truly scared.

"I'll help. Everything is going to be okay, Zack." I tried to console him. "Aerith is going to be okay."

The two of us went out to search for Aerith again. I had to constantly calm Zack down, telling him to take it slow or we would never find her. We walked all over the sectors, but did not find a thing. We couldn't find any hints on where she might be, even though we asked almost everyone we ran in to. It was dark out, with hints of the sun beginning to creep out from beyond the horizon. The search had lasted all night and there was absolutely no sign of Aerith anywhere. I had begun to worry about Cloud myself. I had traveled through every nook and cranny of every sector; I should have run in to him at least once on my way. It made me wonder where he was. AVALANCHE had achieved their goal of blowing up the next reactor so Cloud should have come back the night before, even if it was late at night.

Finally we decided that if we didn't rest we wouldn't be able to go on. Worried and tired, we trudged back to my home. Zack refused to return to Aerith's house until he found her, saying that he wouldn't be able to face Elmyra without bringing Aerith back to her safely. By the time we got back to my house the sun was already in the sky, and our eyes were sleep deprived. Zack slept on the floor in my room and I fell on to my bed, already feeling sleep pull me in to it's grasp.

"Sorry we couldn't find Aerith, Zack. We'll try again when we wake up," I mumbled half asleep. "You really love her don't you?"

Zack made a tired muffled sound on the ground, curled up on the blankets that I'd messily set up for him to sleep on. "Rather than love…" he began, but didn't finish before the both of us were curled up in sleep's arms.

We slept through the whole entire day without meaning to. I had a dream that I was different person that night. The woman had long white disorderly hair that matted, and frizzed every which way. Regardless, she was still quite beautiful with her ruby red eyes. I roamed across Gaia aimlessly, unaccepted by everyone but still living for some reason. People feared me because I harbored a power that no one could wield. People had others that had more power than them, which was why people hated ancients. In the dream my name was Eve…


	27. Chapter 27: AVALANCHE

Chapter 26: AVALANCHE

An explosion sounded through the house. It shook the house, and shelves and tables turned over. This woke Zack and I up. It wasn't the same kind of explosion that happened when AVALANCHE blew up the Reactors. "What's happening!" I screamed through the roaring of the bomb.

"I don't know!" Zack screamed back. We ran out of the room at the same time as the rest of the house.

"What the hell is happening!" Rael cried angrily, holding Serae in his arms to comfort her.

"It sounds like a bomb!" Merule yelled, holding Varst's hand tightly in hers.

"They're blowing up this sector," Attricus said just loud enough for everyone to hear. I really would never be able to tell if that girl was scared or not.

"Why the hell would they do that!" Let spoke next.

"Those Shinra bastards," Larch said trying to calm Aurale down.

"Zack! Why are you here!" Aurale looked confused.

"It's a long story, sorry," Zack replied.

"Everyone grab on to Felicis!" Xantus ordered everyone.

"What! Why me!" I cried taken back.

"Just trust me! Or do you all want to be blown up!" Xantus stomped his foot. Soon I found everyone flooding me, and grabbing a hold of me. I became even more confused than I was before.

Fire poured in to the house, burning all of the wood and barreling towards us like a wall. I shut my eyes tightly, fully aware that I was going to die. The fire hit me like a train, but then I realized it wasn't hot. Everything was enveloped in darkness like my eyes were closed and I couldn't open them. A white haired woman with crimson red eyes approached me in the darkness and put her hand on my forehead, pushing my head back. "I can't have you dying yet, can I? You're my host after all."

"Eve?" I asked finally opening my eyes.

It felt like I was waking up from a bad dream. This feeling was so nostalgic, like I'd felt it once before. I rubbed my eyes and looked around. "Shit!" I cried when I saw my surroundings. Debris was scattered all around me, along with Zack and my group. We were all unscathed, but burn marks scarred everything around us. One by one my friends woke up, dazed and confused, all asking one thing. "We're not dead?"

We weren't dead, but the Sector seven slums were. We were the only survivors. "How did this happen? How are we still alive?" Zack asked pushing his hair back wide eyed. "I don't believe this.

"It's because Felicis is Eve's host, so Eve won't let her die. Eve sends her to another place that she deems safe. That's also how you survived the church bombing nine years ago, Felicis. Eve won't let you die until she's ready to take your body as her own." Xantus explained. "Of course the others… we can die. Even if one of us died a little bit of power isn't a big deal to her. I know this because it's happened to Attricus before too, since Attricus is also a host. I thought I'd lost her for sure, but suddenly she just appeared out of nowhere unconscious."

"Did you see Eve?" Attricus approached me with her clear blank eyes. "I saw her."

"I saw her," I said looking down. I couldn't believe it, Xantus wasn't crazy after all. I really was this ancient, Eve's host. We were all just fragments of her soul, and I was her body.

"We don't have time to think about that right now! Look around us!" Serae stood up. "Everything is trashed! Everyone is dead!"

It was true. There wasn't any sign of any living thing left. "What about Cloud?" I found myself asking. Everyone was silent and was too afraid to answer. "He's alright isn't he? Cloud has to be alright."

"Felicis," Zack said sadly.

"No, he's alright. If he was dead I'd be able to feel it. I would know if he was dead." I protested. I began to call out for Cloud in the rubble. Maybe he wasn't in Sector 7 during the bombing. All I knew was that he was okay, I could feel it. I just needed him to know that I was alright too. I began to wander around the torn apart sector, finding myself back at the park that I always visited. On the ground was Cloud, Tifa, and another man that I didn't know. "Everyone! It's Cloud! Come here!"

Everyone rushed over breathing a deep sigh of relief at the sight of Cloud slowly getting up from the ground and rubbing his head. "Felicis?"

"I'm right here, don't worry. We're all alright," I kissed his forehead.

Zack walked over to Tifa and shook her awake, while the others woke up the other man. "Zack? You're still alive?" Tifa asked shocked when she awoke.

"Yeah, alive and kicking," he replied jokingly.

"You two know each other?" Cloud asked squinting his eyes at the both of them.

"It was a long time ago," Zack cocked his head to the side, not wanting to go through the explanation of Cloud's lost memories. "Wait, we still haven't found Aerith!"

"Aerith was captured by the Turks," Cloud told him.

"I didn't know you two knew each other." Zack looked surprised.

"We just met not too long ago," Cloud cocked his head to the side just like Zack.

"I see," Zack replied.

"Better captured than dead, right Zack?" I tried comforting him. Then I patted his head like old times. "She's going to be okay."

Finally the dark skinned man woke up with such intensity that everyone jumped. "Marlene!" he cried. He began running to the blocked entrance of sector 7, trying to lift the debris.

"Hey, old man I don't think that's going to work," I warned him. Tifa and Cloud tried to calm him down, but he was set on trying to lift the heavy debris.

"Marlene is safe Barret. I saw Aerith mouth 'she's okay' when the Turks had her." Tifa told him.

"What? The Turks? They aren't bad, right? At least not all of them are bad. I knew that they were after Aerith, but they promised me that they would let me take care of her. Tseng promised me that!" Zack said. I knew that Zack and the Turks were friends. I also remembered the mission to Modeoheim that we went on with Tseng.

"You're friends with Turks!" Barret grabbed Zack by the collar. "Are you some spy or something?"

"Let him go," I grabbed Barret's hand and pushed him back. "He's right, the Turks aren't bad people."

"Felicis, maybe it's only that way when we're in SOLDIER, but it's not that way anymore. We're not working for Shinra anymore." Cloud put his hand on my shoulder, trying to hold me back from pushing Barret.

"You were from SOLDIER too?" Barret asked squinting his eyes at my mako blue eyes.

"All three of us," Zack said. "Felicis, Cloud, and I were all first class SOLDIERS."

"You were in SOLDIER?" Cloud asked Zack. "I don't remember you being there."

"Long since retired SOLDIER," Zack laughed uneasily realizing his mistake in admitting he was in SOLDIER. "That's how Felicis and I met, back when you weren't in SOLDIER yet."

"If I remember right, people don't just retire from SOLDIER…" Cloud looked at Zack suspiciously.

"Let's just drop the subject!" I said seriously. "If Zack said he retired then he retired, okay?"

"But it's a lie!" Cloud began before I shushed him. Zack breathed a sigh of relief after Cloud stopped pressing him about the SOLDIER topic.

"We have to go to Aerith's house, to tell Elmyra about what happened to Aerith," Zack told everyone.

I stood in front of my old home, knees shaking. I hadn't been here in years, and I hadn't seen my mother in years. I just couldn't help but wonder what had changed. Biting down on my lip and sucking in a deep breath I calmed myself. "You're going to be okay. Elmyra misses you," Zack said patting me on the head.

"I think she can handle herself," Cloud snapped at Zack pushing his hand away. It was obvious that Cloud still hadn't gotten used to the fact that Zack and I were friends again yet. I could hear Rael snickering in the background, and I had to hold myself back from turning around and punching him. "Ready?" Cloud asked me.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Let's go in."

Barret was the first to burst in the door. If I was my mother I would've thought he was a robber breaking in to the house. Mom looked surprised to see all of the people filing in to the house, until she realized that it was me and the group that she had not seen for nine years. "Felicis?" she said in disbelief.

"Hi mom," I waved nervously. Suddenly her hand came down on my face and a slap sounded out. I held my cheek in pain and looked back to face her. Tears were streaming down her face as she looked at me.

"You selfish, foolish daughter. You just leave for nine years and come back. I thought that you were dead, your sister thought you were dead too!" Elmyra stomped her foot.

"I know, I'm sorry." I said. Tears began to well up in my eyes. I was so much taller than my mother now, I still remembered her as the woman who had height on me, but now I was half a head taller than her. The furniture in the house had been moved around, but other than that the atmosphere was the same as before. My mother then threw her arms around me.

"Don't ever do that again!" she sobbed.

"I won't. Sorry." I apologized. When we finally stopped our embrace she looked at Cloud and Zack who were finally standing next to each other without sending each other nasty glares, which were coming more from Cloud than Zack.

"You guys are here because of Aerith, right?" She said.

"Aerith was captured by the Turks," Cloud explained.

"I'm sorry that I didn't protect her, Elmyra." Zack apologized.

"It's okay, Zack. I couldn't protect her either. The Turks took her from here actually." Elmyra said. Then she began to talk about her past and the childhood of Aerith and I. Apparently after I supposedly died Tseng came for Aerith, calling her the last Ancient alive. Of course I was also an ancient, and so were the rest of my friends from nine years ago so they miscalculated, but they wanted to take Aerith. Aerith had been avoiding the Turks for the last nine years, and the only reason she was caught was because of Barret's daughter Marlene.

Barret hurriedly rushed upstairs to greet his daughter after my mother's long story and Cloud followed after him. I stayed downstairs with Tifa, Zack, and my mom. I told my mother all about my journeys as the only female SOLDIER in Shinra and having to hide my secret for many years about being a female. She seemed to enjoy it, though she was still not happy that all this time I was so close yet I didn't care to visit her once. After my mother and I talked for a while I sat back down with Zack, Tifa, and the rest of my friends. One by one my friends greeted my mother who they had not seen for years, besides Aurale who had visited her a couple of times.

"This is all kind of crazy, isn't it?" Tifa said to me. I was surprised and didn't know if she was talking to me or Zack at first, but soon I realized it was me.

"Yeah, it is, but I'm pretty accustomed to this sort of thing. I was in SOLDIER after all." I laughed without humor.

"Yeah, I guess," Tifa sighed. Zack wasn't listening so she quickly turned to me with a grin. "You and Zack had a thing together that Cloud isn't happy about, right?"

I was appalled at how straightforward she was that I was silent for a few seconds before frantically denying it. "He's just jealous is all… he gets jealous really easily!"

"I know, right?" Tifa laughed. "I think that we get along, Felicis. It'd be nice if we became friends."

It was obvious that Tifa had feelings for Cloud, and it bothered me just the slightest but I didn't want it to get in the way of making new friends. "Yeah, it would be nice." I smiled.

"And I won't tell Cloud about your thing with Zack," she winked.

"We don't have a thing!" I protested loud enough for Zack to hear. I heard him laugh behind me and I shot him a glare before turning back at Tifa.

"Sure you don't," she laughed as Cloud came back down the stairs.

"I'm going to look for Aerith," he announced.

"I'm coming too. I have to help." Tifa said being serious right after a goofy conversation.

"Me too," Zack said as Barret walked down the stairs.

"Nope, this is an AVALANCHE mission. You guys are not in AVALANCHE." He shook his head.

I crossed my arms and looked at him, "well you guys seem to be pretty short on members right now," I smirked looking at the three of them. "So we'll do you a favor and join your little organization. I'm sure that you're going to want our help."

"Felicis, you don't have to do that," Cloud protested, but I interrupted him.

"I'm tired of just sitting around, Cloud. We're all tired of just sitting around. I didn't have a problem with Shinra after a quit SOLDIER, but now it's gone too far. I'm ready to bring that place down to its knees. Anyways, they think that I'm dead so I'm pretty sure that I'm a lethal weapon against them." Then I looked at Zack. "You're joining too, right?"

"Hey, they think that I'm dead too so I'm just as lethal as you. Anyways, I wouldn't miss a chance to fight alongside you again. We're going to dominate." I laughed. "Though I do need a new sword, someone else has my old one." He said looking at his buster sword on Cloud's back.

"Count us in too." Rael spoke for the Ancient half of the group. "We're pretty damn useful if I do say so myself."

"There Barret, you've got yourself a team," I said with my hands on my hips.

Before going off to Shinra we made one stop to our blown up house. All that was left were pieces of charred wood, and pieces of our beds. I dug through the debris and uncovered Fascinare, shiny looking and new. "I never thought I was going to use you again," I whispered to it with a smile on my face, holding it up to the sky.


	28. Chapter 28: AVALANCHE Strikes!

Chapter 27: AVALANCHE Strikes!

The group headed to the Wallstreet market where we all hoped to find some way up to the plate. Cloud led the way along with Barret, who was still looking somewhat antsy at the fact that a group of Ancients and two more ex-SOLDIERS had joined the group. In our quick arrival to the Wallstreet market Zack ran in to one of the weapon shops, coming out with a shiny new sword. It was almost the same in width and length of the Buster Sword, but the ends of the sword met up at a curved point at the top. The hilt was finely wrapped with a blue grip, and the end of the hilt ended with an edge, making it so that even being hit with the hilt would be painful. After waving around his new monstrous sized sword he locked it on to his back like he used to with the Buster Sword. It was almost nostalgic to see Zack like this again, ready for battle. "Hey Cloud, catch," Zack informed him before tossing him a couple of small rectangular objects. "Shopkeeper gave them to me, they might come in handy."

"What are they?" Cloud asked staring at the objects in his hands.

"Batteries," Zack replied with a laugh. "Hey, maybe you've spent too much time off of the plate Cloud." Then Zack smirked and went ahead.

"He talks like he knows me so well," Cloud scowled, stuffing the batteries in his pockets. His distaste for Zack could not have been more obvious.

"Well maybe you two are more alike than you think," I smiled at him, trying to cheer him up. "I think that they two of you should be friends, I'm sure that Zack just wants to get to know you more."

"I don't know if I like people like him," he sighed continuing to lead the group. "Hey, Zack! Don't get too far away. You don't even know where you're going." Cloud called out to him for the first time since he'd lost his memories. "If you get lost you're just going to trouble all of us."

"Don't worry, chief. I'll be fine," Zack laughed continuing on. "You wanted to go to the plate, right? You're not the only one who knows the way. I've spent just a little more time down here than you have."

Cloud scoffed once more and I couldn't help but laugh. I linked our hands and smiled at him, "leave him be. Zack knows how to handle himself."

"And you know so much about him, don't you?" Cloud said with a thick tone, pushing away my hand. "We're busy right now. I don't have time to mess around." Then he too walked ahead of the group.

I sighed and shook my head. I had been stupid to think that I could eliminate Cloud's easily jealous personality so quickly, but he was right. We didn't have time to mess around with the slums in a mess and Shinra to blame. We had to put an end to all of this misery that Shinra was bestowing upon Midgar.

Finally, we arrived at a tall metal wall. From head to toe it was covered in graffiti, and from the middle of the wall was a wire. I looked at the bottom of the wire and looked upwards to see that the wire continued to rise towards the plate. "So I'm guessing that this is our way out, huh?"

"It's times like these when I'm glad that I was in SOLDIER. I wouldn't want to be a regular human climbing this thing." Zack shook his head at the wire.

We all turned to Tifa and Barret who were the only two 'normal' humans among the group. Not including myself, nine of us were Ancients, two were former SOLDIERS, and I was both. Ancients were just naturally built superhuman, and SOLDIERS had been modified to be superhuman. Barret and Tifa on the other hand were just, ordinary. "We really gotta' climb this thing?" Barret looked at the wire like it was a noodle and would snap if anyone touched it. "It's impossible."

"I'll do it," Tifa shrugged. "It doesn't look like too much of a problem to me."

"Fine, I don't wanna' be left behind. That's the only reason I'm gonna' climb this piece of shit." Barret groaned still staring at the wire like it would break.

"I'll go first," Cloud said. He was then followed by Zack and I, and after that came my group of friends, and then Tifa and Barret. One by one we scooted up the wire, praying that it would not break under all of the strain we were putting on it. Hopefully we had not weathered away at it too much.

When we got off of the wire at long last we were faced with a new challenge to get up on to the plate. More wires and broken pipes hung erratically around the air, and these were the pipes that would get us on to the plate and to Shinra. "Damn, what a bother," Rael scratched his head, holding on to Serae's hand tightly.

"Well this looks like a doozy," Varst followed with his own sarcasm.

"It's not too bad," Xantus encouraged and then looked at his younger sister, "right, Atricus?"

"Piece of cake," Atricus replied sounding as uninterested as ever.

"Is she always like that?" Tifa whispered in to my ear, which I responded with a nod.

"But it's not her fault that she's like that," I told her remembering that she was just a container for the emotions that she lacked, Eve's emotions. Tifa looked at me confused, but did not push the topic.

Slowly, but surely we caught up to Cloud who sat on one of the broken pipes staring at a yellow power box. "I think that this thing needs batteries. They must've fallen out when the bomb hit. The battery would power this propeller, and I could stop it again so that we could jump on to that ledge," Cloud pointed and pulled out the batteries that Zack had previously thrown to him.

"Guess the batteries became useful faster than I thought. Don't hold back on your thanks," Zack joked taking a slight bow. Cloud shot him a quick glare before plugging in the batteries and watching the propeller spin until it reached the point in which he wanted. "Come on Cloud. You don't have to be so serious."

"Do you really think that we have time to play games right now? If you keep on joking around like this you're just going to be a hindrance! Aerith is supposed to be important to you, but it doesn't seem that way right now!" Cloud finally exploded, but judging on the smirk on Zack's face it was all according to his plan.

"Come on guys, this isn't the time to be arguing right now," Tifa tried to stop them, but I held her back and shook my head.

"I think that Zack needs this right now. Both of them do." I knew that I sounded vague, but I didn't know what more I could say.

"You think that being serious and angry about the situation is going to make it any better? If you keep carrying on your duties with such a depressed look on your face you're the one that's going to be a hindrance. You're just dragging down the team's optimism with your rage. Be more of an optimist Cloud, you weren't always like this," Zack sighed.

"What do you know about me!? You don't know anything about me at all! Stop talking like we're buddies! I hate your guts!" Cloud roared.

Zack stood, still looking unaffected by his words, but that was only how it looked. On the inside I knew that it hurt to have your best friend say that he hated you. The very person that Zack had put his life on the line to protect now claimed that he hated him. This was the same person that had once looked up to Zack like a role model. Deep in Zack's heart it was obvious that he felt responsible for what happened to Cloud, and now he felt like he had to set it straight. "You want to know the truth Cloud? The thing is that you're the one who doesn't know anything-…"

"Zack, enough!" I stopped him before he could ruin the lie the two of us had built up for so long. "You've said enough, haven't you?"

Immediately he bit his tongue, leaving everyone besides the two of us and the rest of my group in the dark. "Yeah," Zack said. "Sorry about that Cloud. I got a little carried away, but I don't think that I really said anything wrong. Just think about being more of an optimist from now on, okay?"

"Not interested," Cloud scoffed, hopping on to the stopped propeller and then on to the next ledge.

Zack looked at me with an apologetic face, but I just shook my head to tell him that it was okay. He was just trying to do what I did not have enough guts to do. I was still afraid of him learning the truth, so I just continued to build up a lie.

Along the way up the pipes the batteries came in handy several more times. Carefully, we kept on snaking up the myriad of pipes hoping to get up to the surface as soon as possible. When we _did_ reach the surface we appeared right before the Shinra headquarters. Zack stood before the building in awe, as did I. It felt like it had been an eternity since I had last been to the building. I couldn't even imagine how long it felt like it had been to Zack. He had not been able to set foot in front of the building in fear that they would send SOLDIERS after him to finish him off once and for all. Cloud and I too had been faced with this, but for a considerably less amount of time than Zack.

"I just realized how long it has been since I 'retired'," Zack laughed almost in disbelief. "Wow, this place really hasn't changed, has it?"

"Looks like you're still in love with this place," Barret said suspiciously.

"Of course I am. This place was my dream after all. I can't say that it isn't still," Zack scratched the back of his head as I recalled his dream. It was his only dream, and it had been his dream for years. _To be a hero…_

"You don't have to dream about something like that anymore," I found myself blurting out. "You've already achieved that dream in your own way without SOLDIER. I'm sure that Angeal would have said the same thing."

Zack looked at me surprised. In the mention of Angeal I could see that tears had begun to well up in his eyes, but like a man he choked them back and smiled. "Thanks, I didn't think that anybody thought that way."

"I think that way, and a lot of other people too," I replied trying to think of things that Angeal would say off the top of my head.

"Guess I'm going to need a new dream then," Zack looked up at the Shinra building.

"How about saving this world and destroying this place," Barret suggested, heading for the front entrance of the building.

"Are you crazy Barret!? You want to just walk right in the front door of the Shinra building!? You'll get yourself killed!" Tifa protested, trying to stop him.

"Whatever, I'll slaughter these guys," Barret announced confidently.

"Tifa's right, mister." I shook my head. "Shinra's got big guns, even bigger than that piece you've got on your arm. They've got war machines, and they love to use them any chance that they get.

"So those SOLDIERS ain't the only war machines they've got, huh?" Barret grunted.

"We have to sneak in," Cloud told Barret. "That is if we want to stay alive."

"Being alive is nice," Aurale shrugged.

"Well then I guess it's the stairs," Zack pointed to one of the doors alongside the outside of the building.

"Guess so," Merule readied herself for the climb.

After climbing about forty flights of stairs Barret stopped in his tracks with sweat dripping down his face, and gasping for breath. "I can't do this anymore! I'm not some enhanced SOLDIER human or some born enhanced Ancient."

"I'm a regular person too and I can do it!" Tifa argued out of breath. "I don't even care anymore! Let's just go!" she cried running ahead of Barret who finally followed after seeing everyone leave him.

At the top of the stairs Tifa and Barret looked as if they were about to collapse. "Man, this really takes it out of you."

"That's the point," I replied. "If anyone tried to break in to Shinra they would be exhausted before they even attacked. I don't think they expected any of their ex-SOLDIERS or a bunch of Ancients to come and attack them though. I wouldn't blame you two if you didn't want to continue."

"No, I have to go save Aerith!" Tifa pressed on.

"I want to blow off some Shinra heads," Barret roared readying his gun.

"Well since that's settled, let's go," Cloud said opening the door to the building.

Almost immediately we were met with resistance, but their group was horribly outnumbered by our group of fourteen. When the enemies were quickly finished off Cloud snatched their key card and we continued on.

Using the key card we hopped in to one of the elevators and sent ourselves up to the 60th floor. I hadn't been on that floor in quite a while. Everything above the 60th floor was specially enhanced, in other words it was heavily guarded and SOLDIER territory from 60 on.

Stealthily we maneuvered through various guards and achieved the key card that allowed us to the 62nd floor of the Shinra building. Without being noticed we made it to another elevator and travelled up to our next destination.

This time we had arrived at the mayor's office, but of course almost everyone knew that he was only the mayor of Midgar in name. Shinra was always the one pulling the strings in the background while using the Mayor's name, that way if anything bad happened Shinra would not be blamed for it. All of the anger would be directed at the mayor. All this time the Mayor had been harboring hatred towards Shinra, motivating him to give us his key card to get up to floor 65, that was only if we guessed the password though.

Our group split up among the libraries to collect information, and/or clues on the password. Finally, we came across the answer and spoke to the mayor. The password had been 'BEST' to indicate that he thought he was the best in Midgar. Better than Shinra, and better than anyone. To reward us he gave us his key card and an elemental material for each of us. With that we headed up the elevator once more.

After much more grief we found ourselves following Hojo to floor 67. When Hojo left the room that held his specimen we all decided to explore. Zack and I looked at the specimen with distasteful eyes. "One of these again, huh?" I groaned. "Is he still making these?"

"These monsters gave us quite a bit of trouble didn't they? I thought that he would've stopped after realizing that they were failures, but I guess he hasn't given up yet." Zack shook his head. "I don't want to deal with these things anymore…"

Not too far away Cloud had his eyes on a metal dome. He looked inside of the glass and went wide eyed, backing up and collapsing to the ground. He held his head like it was being ripped apart and grunted. "Cloud!" I cried running to his side and holding him. "What's wrong!?"

"Jenova… so they brought it here," Cloud mumbled to himself. "Sephiroth."

"Where's the things fucking head!?" Barret exclaimed looking through the glass after Cloud.

Zack stood in disbelief, also looking in and seeing Jenova once again with his own eyes. "Sephiroth," he said, and then he looked at Cloud remembering the Sephiroth cells that lived within him. Zack crouched down next to me and whispered in my ear, "I think that he's starting to remember things."

I stared back at him with unbelieving eyes. "No! That can't be! That can't happen!"

"Even if you don't want it to happen it's inevitable. They couldn't stay gone forever." Zack stood back up and turned his back to me.

"What's going on Felicis?" Cloud asked confused.

"It's nothing," I quickly replied without even needing to think. "You just got a little light-headed is all. Let's just concentrate on saving Aerith right now, okay?"

We followed Hojo to his next room and there we found Aerith locked up in a glass cage, reading 'SAMPLE'. "Hojo!" Zack cried in rage, remembering all of the things that Hojo had done to him. He had locked him up in a similar cage for eight whole years.

"Ah, Zack Fair. It seems that you survived. I should have guessed as much, after all you are quite resilient to death." Hojo chuckled.

"I will never forgive you, you bastard! Locking me up was one thing, but locking up Aerith is a whole other story!" Zack roared, finally losing his playful attitude. It had been ages since she'd seen Zack's mood change to battle mode. She could only hope that he hadn't gotten rusty after the four and a half years he'd spent without fighting.

"So that's it's name, Aerith," Hojo said looking at the passed out Aerith in the cage.

"Yeah, and we're taking her back," Cloud announced.

"Let her go," I followed with a snarl. "You like Ancients, don't you? Let's play then." All of the ancients readied themselves for battle. Quickly drawing any swords or weapons we thought were necessary, and in some of our cases only our Ancient abilities were enough.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? You're all just subjects for my testing, an endangered species. Anyways, I'm the only one who knows how to work the machines in this room. If you kill me how will you save your sister?" He was right, we couldn't kill him, which made the situation much more complicated. "Ready the specimen," Hojo said, and almost immediately after the monster that Zack and I had been examining was lifted in to the same cage with Aerith.

We all ran over to her side and she tried dodging the monster's attacks within the small cage. Finally, she ran to the side of the glass and pounded on it. "Zack! Cloud! Help me!"

"Without my help these animals would disappear," Hojo said to us.

"Aerith is a person! Not an animal!" Tifa cried stomping her foot.

"Barret! Do something!" Cloud commanded.

A grin spread across Barret's face and he readied his machine gun arm. In a series of pops the glass was shattered and the door opened. The monster jumped out on to Hojo, trying to tear away at him. Zack used this time to jump and snatch Aerith, returning her safely.

Just then the monster turned around after knocking Hojo out cold. "My name is Red XIII. I will help you if you would like my assistance."

"It talked!" Tifa exclaimed. Even Zack and I were surprised. We'd seen some pretty nasty dog-like monsters like this, but never once did it ever talk.

"Looks like Hojo really succeeded in his work," I gawked.

"Tell me about it. This thing can actually talk!" Zack joined me.

"Well it looks like he's one of us now, so there's no time to stand around looking like fish." Cloud said grabbing me away from Zack's side.

"You guys really came for me," Aerith looked at Cloud and Zack bright eyed, extremely irking me. It was like she was a helpless princess that always needed saving and I couldn't handle it. "Even you Felicis, thank you."

"Don't thank me, I didn't come here for you. I came here to destroy Shinra once and for all, you just added to the troubles that I already had." I folded my arms, knowing that what I was saying would hurt her. "Next time, learn how to take care of yourself. You aren't a child now."

Cloud shot me an angry glance, "don't you think that's too much, Felicis?"

"Let me tell you what's too much! Coming all the way to save this girl! That's too much! What use are you anyways if you can't fight!" I let my emotions flow out like a flood, infuriated that Cloud was siding with her and forgetting about me.

"That's enough Felicis! She's your older sister, at least show her some respect!" Cloud snapped.

"I don't respect any part of this girl. I don't need to show her any respect!" I argued, but then I felt a strong hand pull me back behind him. "Zack!"

"Let's just drop the subject, okay Cloud? Felicis doesn't really get along well with Aerith, that's just how it's going to be. Just give it up," Zack shook his head, hiding me behind him. I knew that he was going to this extent for me because he was scared that I would cry over Cloud choosing Aerith over me. He knew how sensitive I was over other choosing her over me, since it had happened all throughout my childhood, and it had happened with him. I cried then too if I remembered correctly, and he didn't want that to happen again.

"I haven't even gotten started with you yet! Felicis and I are together. Don't you think that you're always acting just a little too friendly with her?" Cloud hissed.

"Well we are friends after all, so we would obviously be friendly with each other wouldn't we?" Zack replied with his smart ass answer that made me somewhat smile.

"You're an idiot," I whispered with a small laugh and held on to the back of his shirt.

"I know," he answered in the same whisper.

Cloud scowled at him as I glared at Aerith. From behind me I could hear Barret groaning and Rael say with a sigh, "What's up with this huge battle against these four?"

He was right, there was a battle against the four of us that had begun. We had saved Aerith, but now came the hard part: getting back down. We decided to split up in to four groups of four, and the problems had just begun with Aerith and Cloud the same group and Zack in mine.

* * *

><p>just in case you were wondering, yes the second half of this story is all from the Final Fantasy VII main game. most of everything that happens from now on in the story also happens in the game, so have fun reading!<p> 


	29. Chapter 29: LOCKED UP!

Chapter 28: LOCKED UP!

I solemnly walked through the halls of Shinra with Zack by my side. Attricus, Xantus, Aurale, Let, Larch, Merule, Serae, Varst, and Rael followed closely behind, attempting to make as little noise as possible after reading the bad atmosphere. Unfortunately, Zack was not as tactful and immediately began trying to cheer me up, but I countered all of his attempts with silence. All that I could think was that once again someone was choosing Aerith over me. I couldn't even believe that I had been the least bit worried about her when she had been captured, now a part of me wished that she had stayed captured.

Even though I felt bad for Zack, who seemed the slightest bit insane because it looked like he was talking to himself while trying to comfort me, but even so I could not bring myself to respond. I could only continue to remember all of the times that Aerith had been picked over me, remembering why I despised Aerith so much in the first place.

It was true that Aerith was a better person than I was. I had known this even as a young child when I loved playing the violent SOLDIER and Aerith preferred tending to flowers. Aerith had a more likable personality while I was a shut in and disliked conversations. Aerith was beautiful and sweet while I had a sharp tongue and piercing eyes. It was no secret to anyone and it definitely wasn't a secret to me. That was why I hated her; because I knew that she was better than me.

The only things that I was better than her at were fighting and making snappy remarks at other people, both things that she would not need. When Shinra operatives suddenly appeared before them I immediately cut them down in my silent rage without even batting my eyelash, then I threw Fascinare back on to my back. "I just want to get out of here," I finally said. "Let's just get out of here as fast as possible. I just want to get out of here and go to sleep wherever this AVALANCE stays."

Zack nodded, surprised that I had spoken. "Yeah, I'll get you out of here as soon as possible," he grinned. "If it's me you know that I can do it."

His riled up cockiness already began to strike a laugh in me. "I know, why do you think I'm asking you?"

"I think that I'm pretty great," Rael shrugged.

"All of you too," I smiled. "Let's just forget about my little encounter up there and get down. I think that we could all use some rest. Its been a long day."

"Now you're talking," Varst smirked.

"It seems that is what is best," Xantus nodded.

But of course, all did not go as we had planned the next thing we knew we were captured and locked up within the tower, along with the group Cloud had been leading. We had all been thrown in to cells, two people to one. All I had to be glad for was that I had not been set inside the same cell as Aerith. Also, Shinra still did not seem to know that my group and I were also Ancients, though I sought out to keep it that way.

My cell was right next to Cloud's because I could hear his uncomfortable stomping. I could recognize his footsteps from the other side of a room if I needed to. I sat against the cell wall that separated our rooms and listened to the drone of his steps while Zack sat not too far away from me. Finally I said, "Cloud, calm down. We will get out of here so just sit still."

Suddenly a large bang sounded out against the wall, scaring me to my feet. "Felicis, are you in there!?" His worried voice cried.

"Cloud I'm fine," I sighed. "Just quiet down."

I heard frantic footsteps go to the other wall and I could faintly hear Aerith's name being mentioned, something about being a bodyguard and date. Unable to muster any more anger for the day I just sunk to my knees against the wall.

"Felicis?" Zack said, making his way over to me. Slowly he sunk down next to me and wrapped his arms around me. "Hey, just try and get some rest. It's been a long day and I don't think either of us is back in the loop of this kind of missions yet. You look tired."

"I don't think that's why I'm tired," I let out a huge sigh, falling in to his chest more. I could still feel the hardness of it, almost exactly the way it had been before he had taken off to Nibelheim and hadn't come back. "Can I just stay like this for a little while?"

I felt the rise and fall of his chest speed up a little. Realizing what he was feeling towards me in that moment I tried to pull away, but his strong arms held me even tighter. It was almost like he had cocooned himself around me. "Are you trying to tempt me, Felicis?"

"That wasn't my intention," I protested. "I didn't think that-"

"You can tell, can't you? You can tell how if feel about you," Zack whispered in to my ear, sending chills down my back.

"I- I didn't know," I shook my head.

"Well now you do," he said. Carefully he kissed my shoulder, making his way up my neck, until he finally reached my lips. Going in for one last kiss he stopped himself. Suddenly it was like his whole body went limp, but he no longer cocooned himself around me. Now his head rested on my shoulder and his body was lazily draped over mine.

"Zack, I-" I began before I was interrupted by him.

"I love you, Felicis," he choked. "I have for a long time now. I love you so much."

This time, a part of me could not push him away. All I could do was stay in his arms and cry. I did not know where the tears came from though. I did not know if it was the pity that had built up in my chest for the person that I could not love back, or if it was the fact that out of all the times he had told me that he loved me, this one touched me the most. This was the 'I love you' that I had wanted to hear before he left for Nibelheim. This was the 'I love you' that I had been waiting for all of my life.

"But I can't take you from him," Zack held on to me like he was clinging on for dear life. "Even if Cloud hates me he's still my best friend after all, and I can't take you from him. Even though I know that you would be so much happier if you were with me, I can't do it."

Forcing back my tears and wiping them from my eyes I lifted Zack's head. His face was tear streaked, and I remembered the last time that I had seen Zack cry was when Angeal had died. That memory was forever burned in to my mind. "You're right, you know? I would be so much happier being in love with you." I told him, wiping away some of his tears. "But even I don't know why I can't fall in love with you again." I shook my head. "You're so important to me Zack, maybe even more than Cloud, but I can't explain it. I can't think about you as just a friend, but I don't love you the way that I love Cloud."

"Felicis, what are you saying?" Zack asked, but I shook my head again.

"I don't know what I'm trying to say. I don't understand what is happening right now," I admitted to him, but then before I could go on Zack had pressed his lips on to mine and pushed me against the back of the cell so that Cloud could not hear.

It was like I was suddenly shot back to the day Zack left for Nibelheim. The kiss almost mirrored the one from back then. Every vein in my body was once again alive and my senses heightened. My body was on fire, and all that I could taste and feel was Zack. He was everywhere around me. Losing feeling in my legs I slid down to my knees against the wall, but Zack only followed. Finally, when he broke the kiss for air and leaned back in again I half expected him to push me away like he had done before, but he didn't. Zack continued to kiss me, burying his face in my neck and leaving kisses along the side. "Zack stop," I told him, trying to push him away, but he only kissed me on the mouth again to shut me up.

"I can't," he whispered in to my mouth mid-kiss. "I love you, Felicis."

"I love Cloud, I can't," I shook my head, dodging his next kiss.

"I lied, Felicis," Zack said with his serious mako blue eyes. "I can take you from Cloud, I know I can." Finally, he stepped away and leaned against the opposite wall.

I could barely get any sleep after that. My body felt numb and my heart hammered against my chest, but when I finally did get sleep and woke up I remembered Cloud gently kissing my lips, instantly calming me. Then I remembered him linking our hands and him leading me out of the cell. Zack leaned against the wall outside of the cell with Tifa, Barret, and Aerith, watching me with piercing eyes.


End file.
